Last news from TNT-UPS
TNT CEO resigned on Monday :
TNT Express CEO resigns | ATWOnline
According to some EU representative, agreement of EU antitrust autorities could take much more time :
UPS Faces Struggle in TNT Acquisition - WSJ.com
Belgium pilot unions is alerting medias and EU to avoid loss of european pilot jobs in favor of more UPS pilots based in Europe
Translation of the article published in Lesoir of yesterday
The Belgian Cockpit Association want to send an alarm message to the politics about the sale of TNT to UPS, and its consequences for the Belgian pilots.
UPS (and FedEx) allegedly operate intra-european flights with American pilots who don't pay any charge in Europe. And operate "cabotage" flights inside Europe, which is the preserve of European airlines.
On the other hand, no American airline can own more than 49% of an European airline. What future for TNT airways (29 aircraft, 300 pilots) after the sale of TNT to UPS ?
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Every night, dozens of US registered cargo airplane take off from Paris Charles de Gaulle and Cologne Bonn airports, carrying payload over the European networks of FedEx and UPS.
By sending parcels from all over Europe, BeCA has recently proven that their payload is in fact domestic European freight. Why don’t European pilots have the same rights in US? According to the EU-US agreement, cabotage is not permitted. Why are some parcel originating and at destination of 2 cities in a same country, carried by a US parcel services?
FedEx or UPS planes flying in Europe are operated by US pilots employed on the US payroll. They apply US “international” flight duty times regulations, which are less restrictive than the European FTL. US pilots stay in Europe either for repetitive short-term detachment (and are supposed to fly back to their home base in US) or for long-term periods (up to 5 years!) but they are never subject to the EU and national social and taxation legislation.
Considering the crisis on the pilot job market in Europe, and the absence of a reciprocal obligation this situation is not acceptable.