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View Full Version : Atlas Air Joyride...how long will it last?


Al Capone
27th Nov 2001, 15:29
Atlas Air has recently launched a new product called ' The Atlas Air Partnership Programme'. In brief...they are launching dedicated freighters connecting Latin America North America Europe Asia Africa and the Middle East. This will be achieved by opening 3 new hubs in Anchorage, Liege and Miami.
Let's see..that makes about 6 dedicated B747-400F's operating more than 350 block hours a month. How they do it? Create partnership with ACMI customers such as TNT to get traffic rights on the route. Ok...fine, TNT is sourcing part of the freight. Apart from TNT they are also exploiting traffic route authorities from Polar.

What it does? and what it will do ?

a//It allows a US carrier to hub its operation in the centre of the European Union. Yet have not seen any reactions in the press...

b//Atlas, through its customer base is adopting a 'hop on or get off policy' tying its customers to Block Space Agreement on 6 months contract. Humm, isn't that common carriage?

c//it will create havoc among other scheduled cargo carriers. What are other cargo airlines going to do about this....just let it happen? I wonder what Cargolux, AF, BA, are going to do about this...

d//Atlas Air's plan is to destroy the wet lease concept, compete against its own customer base.

e// Such a 'global reach programme, suggest that Atlas is broke and want's a quick buck out of this.

f// This is a personal view, however a perfect recipe to go bust.

h// Atlas, is something like 10 years old now and should stick to what they were created to do. Would Micheal Chowdry have ever considered swicthing from the wetlease mareket to common carriage??

Your reactions welcome, can anyone see this work?

gema
28th Nov 2001, 00:24
c//it will create havoc among other scheduled cargo carriers. What are other cargo airlines going to do about this....just let it happen? I wonder what Cargolux, AF, BA, are going to do about this...

Easy, just look at the LOGO'S painted on the all white/blue tail B747-400s and you will see that it is AF BA and a few others who are actually using ATLAS to operate on their behalf/. :rolleyes: :eek:

747400CA
28th Nov 2001, 05:01
Sadly, a desperate attempt to re-make itself with a new business model and continue operating even as a good chunk of the fleet is returned by former wet-lease customers in Q1 2002.

Always a visionary, Chowdry moved Atlas towards the purchase of Polar even over the objections of some of his closest friends and senior managers. Could he have sensed in the months before his untimely death that the once-successful wet-lease business model he coined was soon to run out of fuel?

While Atlas could perhaps have pulled off its transformation prior to the events of September 11, how many (even in the soon to be empty halls in Purchase as tenant partner Texaco is leaving) optimists remain?

Is a bankruptcy of MC's once proud vision - the next phase of an Atlas 'Survivor' game?

Move_It
28th Nov 2001, 10:19
Do any of you like to fish? When you watch a fish swim, it is graceful and cool, calm and collected. (Atlas Air with MC)

(Atlas Air Post MC)
But, when you catch it, haul it on your deck, it squirms......flip flops....goes this way and that......fights for its life and does anything it can to survive.

Look at the successful airlines, they stay the course.....treat employees like assets, and not liabilities....treat their costumers with respect and give them what they want........

Atlas, like all the other failed airlines and carriers, is operating from the "old 80's" school of Lorenzo tactics. (With a lot of Lorenzo trained 'managers' and friends)

You would be safe to go short on Atlas unless they display a more 'modern' tactic of 2000's business savvy and an updated (SW JB) labor/management relationship. (Linda, dump your BOD and go with your instincts)

Just my opinion ( but with experience )
Oscar

Al Capone
28th Nov 2001, 14:42
Gema-Thanks for your note, however agree that Atlas Air has a few ACMI customers, such as BA, AZ, AF et al (we all know that). However must remind you the number of airlines who have dropped them, even post Sept 11th. What I find interesting however is that Stan, in his presentation at a Luxembourg conference Nov 19th said that the new scheme and schedules are customer driven, literally. This means that customers dictate days of ops. Ok, fine however what happens if on the HKG - ANC route, one customer prefers a Monday departure, the other a Wed departure. Atlas seems so sure about themselves, it makes me laugh as they even mentioned that in some cases they can operate less than half the payload on a -400F. We all know what the costs are.

Atlas has too many expensive toys to play with, owe lots of dosh and all the only benefit is to stay afloat with some cash flow, barely enough to pay the bils.

And to you (MOVE-IT) or OSCAR. Atlas does in fact seem like a wobbly fish, or perhaps a chicken with its head cut off. Running in all directions, hitting one wall after another. On top of that, with a 'cocky' attidute!

backfire 1234
28th Nov 2001, 18:25
Atlas Air will be successful,contrary to the doom and gloom crowd. Think Positive :)