Hello boys and girls!!
Still here - just got back from Boston (capacity load, too). As WWW says, I've been a little busy recently. Although it would seem that I've survived the cull at Virgin, I've been usng a little of my Pprune Wannabes expertise (!) and contacts to help in the job search for those not so lucky here at Virgin (over 250 at last count). You might be surprised to learn that there are still jobs out there, although they're mainly contract work for experienced people. At least they might keep a fair number of the experienced guys away from the traditional Wannabes territory, and leave some openings for you chaps. That's not a statement of unbridled optimism, but it's a little more hopeful than some of the prognoses we've been giving over the last few weeks.
As a bit of an update on feelings around my contacts in the industry: there are the beginnings of attempts to look beyond the next few days and into the 'medium term' - i.e. to Christmas. Loads over the Atlantic have bottomed out and are beginning to recover for UK carriers - we're showing average loads of 65-70% at the moment, with some routes running at capacity. Yields are not too bad - we haven't dropped our prices although the US carriers have, as a direct result of the financial buffer they've had from the US Government. That's causing some very loud cries of 'foul' at the moment, but it's going to take more than cheap flights to get US pax back on to AA and United just yet.
Surprisingly, the European domestic market has taken a considerable turn for the worse over the last two weeks. This, I'm sure, is more due to upheaval in the general economy rather than any reaction to 9/11 and, as such, may be a little longer-lasting. BMI already reacted by increasing their (pilot) redundancies, and Thomas Cook are now making similar noises about JMC. EZ and Ryan are still bullish, however, as are Virgin Express (one of very, very few mainland European lines to make a profit in Q3). The overall feeling is that, with a few exceptions, the cuts have been made and we now have to see how the market pans out. No-one's forcasting a rapid recovery, but we are seeing a degree of stability returning, which makes planning a bit easier. We are all looking to get Christmas out of the way and waiting to see whether the general public decides to spend its way out of the overall gloom in the New Year. Fingers crossed for all of us!
[ 28 October 2001: Message edited by: Scroggs ]