organise a meeting with them which resulted in nothing
Maybe a bit harsh on the Parc guys there mate. I spoke to one of the pilots who attended the meeting and the impression I got was that Parc updated everyone with the latest situation, AJX's evacuation plans and Parc's evacuation plans, insurance etc and then went on to discuss the list of issues that were being 'looked at' prior to the earthquake. This list has been presented several times to AJX, both by Parc and Crew but AJX just seem to be frozen into inaction. It would seem the contract agencies, while not as frustrated as we are, are nevertheless banging their heads against a brick wall while trying to deal with some who don't have a clue. I'm sure the musical chairs that happens each year, with new ones in and old ones out will really help a lot........read sarcasm into that please.
I agree the Company has had a year to sort this out and they've done absolutely nothing worth speaking about. They've fiddled with the freight schedules, allegedly to try and reduce fatigue but it has done absolutely nothing and that has been the extent of their work on the integration and problem solving
. They're so set in transiting through OKA with its ridiculous restrictions on landing times (so much for a 24 hour hub
) that they'll never solve the problem of trying to link flights AND ensure proper scheduling. The ONLY way to do it will be to base pilots in OKA (not necessarily permanently but on a weekly basis, for instance) and run the flights that way. However, they won't do that because (a)they didn't think of it in the first place, so won't lose face by considering it and (b)they are programmed to go in a straight line and cannot contemplate deviating....even if they are heading for a cliff.
The earthquake will now be used as an excuse for all delays and the failure to address the problems prior to it. They will continue to do their headless chicken act and make no decisions but now they can blame it on something they couldn’t control, so blamelessly passing the buck. The stupid thing is the earthquake has not affected any of the issues we had prior to it, so they’re not going to go away. It might seem selfish continuing to address those problems after such a catastrophic event but the wheel continues to turn. Guys will leave to go back to the States, others will go to other airlines in China etc if the deal is better (and even the Chinese are coming round to the idea of negotiating to attract) and those sitting on the fence will decide to stay at home if AJX don’t sort out the BIG stuff namely days off, money (with such a crap US$), scheduling (freighters) and commuting. This will, of course, lead to more scheduling problems etc and it becomes a self-sustaining, downward spiral. In the meantime we’ve got AJX ‘management’ staring rigidly at the headlights and unable to move because they are too scared to make decisions. They’ve already shown fantastic skills; a three month stay of execution for the existing freighter terms and conditions. Well whoppeee. What are they going to do next? Will they sort out the list of snags and restore the Company to where it was i.e. the best contract out? No, they’ll try extending again and again until they eventually piss everybody off so much that they do go back to the States, go to China, go to KAL etc .
Dogtired asked how the recent events have affected things in ANA. Well, the truth is they haven’t affected things very much at all. It is very true that pax numbers are down and they might be curtailing a few flights but they’ll start swinging back up once the foreign governments realise that it’s not as bad as they initially thought (and especially once they get the power station sorted out). My freight loads have been pretty normal and I’ve certainly not heard of others saying anything to the contrary. So we do have to ask ourselves how far we’re going to let the earthquake be used as an excuse for failing to sort out the pressing issues we had prior to it.
Meanwhile, to those considering coming, I say ‘wait’. Do not come here at the moment when there is so much indecision and change, as you might be signing up for a deal that could be quite different in the future. Hopefully they’ll get their act together, listen to what the contract agencies are telling them (as well as ‘us’ more vocal pilots on the line) and make things a LOT better and return it to the best contract job. If they don’t then stay in your own country and avoid having to deal with crap US$ rates, bad rostering for freight flying and the deterioration in the time you do get to spend at home.
Never thought I’d say that
