GSS to fly for Atlas in MIA, South America

[D-LZ 126]

From the wire, edited for brevity-

"Atlas Air, Inc. wants to take advantage of a growth opportunity in South America. In order to do so, Atlas must commit a second 747-400 to the South American market. Currently, Atlas does not have another -400 in its fleet to dedicate to South America. As a result, Atlas has established an “alliance agreement” with GSS to secure -400 and GSS crews."

[anothercargopilot]

Meanwhile Atlas furloughs 30 professional flight engineers January 1st and parked 2 of its' remaining 5 747 Classics in the desert at the end of December. Even if the Classic cannot handle the MIA to S. America loads/distances, they could have been allocated to AMC work and one of those planes brought to MIA.

ACP

[Chidken Sangwich]

G-GSSA was registered to Atlas Air as N476MC 28 Dec 11.

***edited to correct date.

[Flightmech]

G-GSSA and G-GSSB already returned to Atlas and operating as N475MC/N476MC. G-GSSC will be doing the Atlas South America flying out of MIA.:confused:

[trashhauler]

Ahem! Don't you know the company ALWAYS wins? You get a nice new shiney contract and someone will get whacked. It has been that way since the first chocks were pulled and it will be that way when the last chocks are pulled. An Atlas FO friend of mine mentioned to me HR told him they had stopped hiring. What's up with that?

[anothercargopilot]

"An Atlas FO friend of mine mentioned to me HR told him they had stopped hiring. What's up with that?"

Atlas needed the space in ground school / simulators to transition the Classic pilots to the 747-400.

I don't know the status of 767 staffing and whether more FO's are needed to be hired off the street. No launch date for the 5 767 DHL CMI contract announced other than 1st Qtr 2012. And that announcement was awhile ago now.

ACP

[grounded27]

Even if the Classic cannot handle the MIA to S. America loads/distances

Atlas got their start flying every KMIA-S.A. route out there with 742's and a 741 I can think of.

[Flightmech]

Heard from a source at GSS that this flying out of MIA is cancelled as of today.

[zeddb]

I wish that our union were as protective of us as the US unions are of their member's rights.

What a lousy start to the year.:mad:

[Dan Winterland]

If it were to happen, it would be payback for all the years Atlas crews were doing the BA World Cargo ACMI contract - taking jobs from British pilots.

[Flightmech]

Dan, totally agree but didn't that arrangement between BAWC/Atlas come about because at that time there was no comparable aircraft on the UK register? Until the arrival of AFX of course with the classic but close enough. I guess BAWC could have contracted a European operator even though a UK one wasn't available. Would have been nice to see the tide turn to the Europeans favour!

[zerozero]

If it were to happen, it would be payback for all the years Atlas crews were doing the BA World Cargo ACMI contract - taking jobs from British pilots.

Huh?

Why should the crews suffer any "payback".

The CREWS didn't go around soliciting work from BA. That's a CORPORATE function.

The CREWS fly as they're assigned to fly (be they Atlas or GSS). Since when is going to work a personal decision to screw someone?

Besides, plenty of Brits operated those N registered aircraft.

It's divisive rhetoric like yours that makes this industry miserable.

Boo.
:hmm:

[free at last]

Zero . great response, I in my 40+years of flying have seen more British pilots fly any registration around the world . Try flying a British registered Aircraft as a non Brit.! Good Luck!

[Narrow Runway]

What???? Lots of non-Brits flying on G reg aircraft.

I personally know of:

French, Germans, Italians, Swedes, Danes in B.A.;
Americans, Canadians, Australians, Dutch and South Africans in Virgin Atlantic;
French, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, Belgians, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, Danes, Italians and Austrians in easyJet;
Americans and South Africans in DHL Air UK.

Need I go on? Because I can.

[CEJM]

I am a non-brit and I am flying a G reg aircraft for the last 18 years. And yes, that is proper airline work so not a bug smasher.

You will find that the markets on the continent are more protected because in general they require the candidate to speak the local lingo.

Personally I can't even go back to my own country (on the continent) because the national airline also requires a candidate to have completed his/her flight training at a few selected schools. But that is a completely different discussion. :=

[JW411]

Well, I've said it before but I will say it again, I flew very happily as a DC-10 captain for a Part 121 operator based in JFK for three and a half years. We had so many nationalities flying for us that I wouldn't even know where to start.

It really does work both ways chaps.

One thing that I would agree with is that the US unions are much better than BALPA (which is as much use as t*ts on a bull.)

[Best foot forward]

Aren't you getting a little off thread. If you can get residency and a license then you can fly in any country. Isn't it about GSS flying G reg acft in the US for a US company.

[Popgun]

GSS spawned AACS

Not quite...GSS is a smoke and mirrors operation hatched by Atlas and BA in order for Atlas to retain control of the BA World Cargo contract.

In fact many of the key players instrumental in establishing GSS left AACS in order to be employed by GSS. Some are still there.

As for payback...where do I even start with that cave-man concept. A lot of really great people were badly damaged by the way Atlas management shafted the AACS crew.

[Fr8Dog]

A lot of really great people were badly damaged by the way Atlas management shafted the AACS crew.


You are not really going to start this crap all over again are you? :{

[flite idol]

Agreed FR8.......message gone.:ok:

[Dan Winterland]

GSS was created after the UK's Department of Trade and Industry told BA that it would no longer accept it's pleas that there wasn't a European operation available to carry out it's BAWC work after continued pressure from the UK's Independent Pilot's Association. They either had to find one, or go back to flying freight themselves again. The IPA, a British union, had been complaining for a long time about BA's flagging out and disregard for the UK's laws, so when The DTI took enough interest, the result was inevitable. By creating GSS, AAWW held onto the contract. GSS is 49% owned by AAWW (the largest share a non UK company can hold) and essentially it is still Atlas, but operating under a UK AOC with all that entails including employing pilots who had the right to work in the EU.

I can imagine the response in the US if a very large airline there wanted to use an foreign ACMI operation to do a large part of it's work. Well - I think we have just seen the result - the GSS MIA operation has been cancelled. And I apologise if my use of the word "payback" offended - perhaps I could have found a less inflammatory term. And I'm not happy that some of the AACS crew got the sh!tty end of the stick - they just got caught up in a situation over which they had no control. Atlas don't have a great record of employee relations after MC tragically died - as demonstrated by the Polar situation.

Not that GSS have been great. Their Ts and Cs suck and the BA commands debacle was another shafting of the GSS crews.

[Fr8Dog]

as demonstrated by the Polar situation.



Please explain what you mean by this. I can't wait to hear your answer!

[FougaMagister]

Just to get the record straight, 49% is the maximum a non-EU company can hold (US in this case). According to Single Market rules, an EU-registered company can hold 100% of another if they so like.

Cheers :cool:

[trashhauler]

Don't take the bait Fr8! What is past is past and who really gives a darn.

[Po Boy]

Don't take the bait Fr8! What is past is past and who really gives a darn.

Agreed! AACS is history, and Atlas/Polar are now moving ahead.