This company is VERY close to another shutdown for lack of payment.
1.Lufthansa must be paid in the next four days, or they stop.
2.Navtech, the chart providers, are on a similar deadline.
3.Lack of basic bits, like tires, threaten to limit service. But the above two will shut it down, much like NAMA did on 1 Sept 2010.
4.Pilots need to be paid for services rendered since 1 Aug 2010.
So... who do you think will get paid? I vote for charts, tires and maintenance and other "no-go" items. I am not including the extremely long list of other products/services owed that may not stop airplanes, but just provide the usual Late, Later, Cancelled, Hungry or Filthy flight. Those things will be still owed next month, if they are still operating.
They already KNOW that many / most pilots will keep on working without pay. The London office has been rung up several times today enquiring as to the status of pay. There has not been any order by the top managers to pay the pilots as of about one hour ago, according to those who dispense the pay.
The COO suggested at the Sat. pilot meeting that the money was "already allocated" this past week, and would be in your banks Monday or Tuesday, "at the latest". Like virtually everything they say, it's a lie.
Fellow pilots, if you don't have an escape plan now, get on the phone today with somebody and make a plan.
