Rough week for US airlines
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Rough week for US airlines
In the last week or so Aloha, Champion and ATA Airlines have declared bankruptcy and have shut down. All employee's positions have/will be eliminated.
That's a lot of people folks. Sad thing is that these airlines have been around for a long time.
That's a lot of people folks. Sad thing is that these airlines have been around for a long time.
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October 24, 1978.
That day is when the airline industry in the USA went to hell. Deregulation.
Even the hotshot low cost carrier, southwest is now cutting corners. where will it end?
That day is when the airline industry in the USA went to hell. Deregulation.
Even the hotshot low cost carrier, southwest is now cutting corners. where will it end?
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That day is when the airline industry in the USA went to hell. Deregulation.
Pan Am
Eastern
National
Braniff
TWA
Sun Country
Western
Frontier
I know I am forgetting a few.
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So I guess the expats that work for the less than desirable charters abroad may not have been such a bad choice after all.
But still really bad news to hear.
Lots of jobs abroad, climbto350 is a good source.
But be careful, lots of non payment ones there.
Good luck to all.
But still really bad news to hear.
Lots of jobs abroad, climbto350 is a good source.
But be careful, lots of non payment ones there.
Good luck to all.
Last edited by Earl; 3rd Apr 2008 at 19:09.
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Many airlines, pioneers among them have been lost.
and as to "market forces".
market forces are fine only when there is truly unrestricted competition.
that has never been the case since deregulation. problems with infrastructure negated deregulation's promise
and as to "market forces".
market forces are fine only when there is truly unrestricted competition.
that has never been the case since deregulation. problems with infrastructure negated deregulation's promise
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bad apples, chapter 11 and the like?
ha.
some of the greatest airlines have been in bankruptcy. they were the ones that made a massive airline system work.
deregulation, in theory is fine. in practice, it has failed to produce a BETTER airline system. Cheaper perhaps, but not BETTER.
Better. on time...better service...happier passengers
nope, deregulation without a massive infrastructure improvment means things are falling apart.
ha.
some of the greatest airlines have been in bankruptcy. they were the ones that made a massive airline system work.
deregulation, in theory is fine. in practice, it has failed to produce a BETTER airline system. Cheaper perhaps, but not BETTER.
Better. on time...better service...happier passengers
nope, deregulation without a massive infrastructure improvment means things are falling apart.
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where will it end?
United stopped hiring
Delta stopped hiring
Continental stopped hiring
Northwest stopped hiring
Expressjet stopped hiring
Skywest stopped hiring
ASA stopped hiring
FedEx stopped hiring
UPS has stopped hiring
Expressjet is offering pilots unpaid leave of absences
United is grounding 15-20 737 aircraft
Delta is grounding 10? mainline aircraft
Northwest is grounding 24 DC-9 aircraft
Regional flying has been cut substantially
Comair, Skywest, Expressjet, ASA, Mesa, and others have had their regional contracted flying hours cut
Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy (again)
Skybus cut back almost 50% of their routes
Froniter sold 4 aircraft
Jetblue sold 6 aircraft
Big Sky went out of business
Skyway went out of business
Aloha went out of business
Champion Air went out of business
Edit: ATA out of business
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Rich International
I'm not proud of it, but I was instrumental in bringing down Rich International in 1996. My wife was an FA on Rich and a "Stewardess" on the Otis Spunkmeyer DC-3s. I was a DC-3 Capt. We were all part time. We didn't go anywhere; we were in "showbusiness". We tried to recreate the elegance of airline travel.
Ex TWA Super Connie and 707 water wagon stew, Jen was longing to "return to those wonderful days of yesteryear" for $7.50/hr. block. So she hired on with Rich.
Well, she joined just at the time when passengers were rioting at SFO and LAX because of delayed or cancelled flights. Passengers weren't quite so cowed in those days. Arrest and jail wasn't in the picture and Rich was in the news daily.
It turns out that Rich was trying to fly routes and schedules that required 20+ aircraft with only 14 or 15. If a pilot refused to take a flight because of a mechanical, he was told to fly or be fired, so SFO to HNL and back with flaps inop happened twice that I know of. Once the FA failed to disarm the slide before opening the door at HNL. You can imagine the rest.
When Jen didn't get home on time, I was pretty sure that they turned her and the rest of the crew for a second SFO-HNL-SFO run. Duty time???
More than half the L10s had everything labeled in Arabic. Hydraulics and pressurization were marginal. If a pilot walked in off the street and said he was typed in the Lockheed, he was to told, "There's your airplane, you're going to Frankfurt.
Well, mishaps piled upon near disasters and I really got worried about Jen's safety, so I rang up Rich's FAA Ops inspector in Miami. He tried to brush me off, but when I asked how he spelled his name he perked up and asked why. I told him it was for the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The next day, FAA was riding on every flight. They grounded several pilots after one ride. Some had no L1011 type ratings. They found phony or "missing" maintenance records, plus a long list of other violations.
Two days later Rich was history.
I fear that may be happening again.
Ex TWA Super Connie and 707 water wagon stew, Jen was longing to "return to those wonderful days of yesteryear" for $7.50/hr. block. So she hired on with Rich.
Well, she joined just at the time when passengers were rioting at SFO and LAX because of delayed or cancelled flights. Passengers weren't quite so cowed in those days. Arrest and jail wasn't in the picture and Rich was in the news daily.
It turns out that Rich was trying to fly routes and schedules that required 20+ aircraft with only 14 or 15. If a pilot refused to take a flight because of a mechanical, he was told to fly or be fired, so SFO to HNL and back with flaps inop happened twice that I know of. Once the FA failed to disarm the slide before opening the door at HNL. You can imagine the rest.
When Jen didn't get home on time, I was pretty sure that they turned her and the rest of the crew for a second SFO-HNL-SFO run. Duty time???
More than half the L10s had everything labeled in Arabic. Hydraulics and pressurization were marginal. If a pilot walked in off the street and said he was typed in the Lockheed, he was to told, "There's your airplane, you're going to Frankfurt.
Well, mishaps piled upon near disasters and I really got worried about Jen's safety, so I rang up Rich's FAA Ops inspector in Miami. He tried to brush me off, but when I asked how he spelled his name he perked up and asked why. I told him it was for the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The next day, FAA was riding on every flight. They grounded several pilots after one ride. Some had no L1011 type ratings. They found phony or "missing" maintenance records, plus a long list of other violations.
Two days later Rich was history.
I fear that may be happening again.
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Otis Spunkmeyer
It wasn't a DC-2. It was a stock DC-3 that Donald Douglas presented to Hap Arnold when Hap needed a personal transport.
The contract for the C-47 was two years in the future, so the Army Air Corps called it a C-41.
I think that the AAC had been buying a hybrid DC-2 fuselage on a DC-3 wing (don't ask why) and called it a C-39.
Anyway, the C-41 was supposed to go to United, but Donald Douglas presented it to Hap Arnold at Boling Field in Washington and Hap said "send me the bill", or something like that. Then his daughter married Douglas' son.
Jen and I had that airplane on the US Airshow circuit in 1997 since it was the 50th anniversary of the USAF as a separate service.
There are a lot of very funny stories that are related to that summer, but Jen and I (and our pissy young F/O) had a DC-3 to ourselves for about three months.
There are photos on my website on the aviation and DC-3 pages:
http://www.chamoismoon.com
The contract for the C-47 was two years in the future, so the Army Air Corps called it a C-41.
I think that the AAC had been buying a hybrid DC-2 fuselage on a DC-3 wing (don't ask why) and called it a C-39.
Anyway, the C-41 was supposed to go to United, but Donald Douglas presented it to Hap Arnold at Boling Field in Washington and Hap said "send me the bill", or something like that. Then his daughter married Douglas' son.
Jen and I had that airplane on the US Airshow circuit in 1997 since it was the 50th anniversary of the USAF as a separate service.
There are a lot of very funny stories that are related to that summer, but Jen and I (and our pissy young F/O) had a DC-3 to ourselves for about three months.
There are photos on my website on the aviation and DC-3 pages:
http://www.chamoismoon.com
Last edited by Robert Campbell; 6th Apr 2008 at 00:26.
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Word on the street is Sun Country, Skybus, Spirit and Frontier are close to closing and may not make it until year end.
This will spread to Europe, fast. Alitalia, anyone?
The BA pilots (which might be termed quite typical) picked a really good time to revolt....
This will spread to Europe, fast. Alitalia, anyone?
The BA pilots (which might be termed quite typical) picked a really good time to revolt....
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Otis DC-3s
To answer your question about what happened to the Otis Spunkmeyer DC-3s, they had to shut down and sell the airplanes because the cost =of insurance got to be prohibitive.
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While the grounding of a/c does impact manning, let's not forget about the mandatory retirement age just changed to 65 just under 4 months ago.
Also, at UPS/FedEx, they had a bunch of ROPES/Clingons/Herpes (over 60 years old pilot-type) flight engineers, that now get to go back to their Captain's seats, per the new legislation (employed as a required cockpit crewmember when the law changed).
FWIW
Also, at UPS/FedEx, they had a bunch of ROPES/Clingons/Herpes (over 60 years old pilot-type) flight engineers, that now get to go back to their Captain's seats, per the new legislation (employed as a required cockpit crewmember when the law changed).
FWIW
Paxing All Over The World
con-pilot
OK, let's start with the start ups list: 
Jet Blue
? ? ?
Companies are born and start to grow. Some don't make it past childhood and some live for while and do OK but then marry into another company.
Some companies live a loooooong time and then, they are so old and set in their ways, they find that they have come to the end of their time. So, someone buys the house and furniture that they lived in and manages to reuse parts of it again.
In Europe, we have lost Swiss Air and SABENA and now Alitalia is about to lose it's house.
Companies are just like the people who start and run them. They grow old and die and those that have lived in and with them grieve.
Around the world, we are entering a period of grieving for many kinds of company, not just airlines. Nope, I don't like it either, but we have not learnt from earlier cycles of Boom-and-Bust and now we are going Bust.
Too true, just how many have gone under since?
Pan Am
. . .
Pan Am
. . .
Jet Blue
? ? ?
Companies are born and start to grow. Some don't make it past childhood and some live for while and do OK but then marry into another company.
Some companies live a loooooong time and then, they are so old and set in their ways, they find that they have come to the end of their time. So, someone buys the house and furniture that they lived in and manages to reuse parts of it again.
In Europe, we have lost Swiss Air and SABENA and now Alitalia is about to lose it's house.
Companies are just like the people who start and run them. They grow old and die and those that have lived in and with them grieve.
Around the world, we are entering a period of grieving for many kinds of company, not just airlines. Nope, I don't like it either, but we have not learnt from earlier cycles of Boom-and-Bust and now we are going Bust.