GSS to fly for Atlas in MIA, South America
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.
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.
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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.
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