Today will be an interesting one. Fed Ex and UPS will be posting thier 3rd quarter reports and it is expected to show a loss of projected loads by UPS and Fed Ex. Fed Ex is expected to mitigate their losses, even posting some gains, due to the increase in their overseas operations. UPS does not have a large overseas operation but the slowdown was expected (Wall Street Journal) and the company has plans to deal with the economic losses.

Things are nor so bad as first feared. Fed Ex reportings are down only a little. The big boy rolls on. The expected advantage of DHL's downsizing?
Same as predicted.

Correct there trash. The company grew about 8%. The bad news it is down from it's normal high of 10%+ growth. The Commercial Appeal mentioned that the company is going after lower cost carriers and have the resources to handle lower revenues to take market share. Fed Ex is not in the habit of losing and how that may or may not affect the DHL/Polar/Atlas connection is anyone's guess, but I am betting on Fed Ex.

Dont think that Fedex is going to "cash in" on a little DHL downsizing. There will be some downsizing in the US but not so much to make a really huge difference to Fedex or UPS. Question is going to be whether the downsizing will result in Astar and ABX crews getting furloughed.

No furloughs on the Astar side.

That is always*a possibility. I know fed Ex is not furloughing. All I can tell you is what Fed Ex publishes.

Lost me there. What's a possiblility?

Hvy
That Fed Ex or UPS will not cash in on DHL downsizing. I am with layin, why advertise it is isn't going to happen?
As for furloughs, experience has taught me that everyone hires right up to the furlough date. That's why you find people furloughed while attending a new hire class. Been there, done that. As one person once said, "Watch what they do, not what they say".

I understand there. We've had our ACMI adjusted with DHL so that there will be no furloughs for 2 years from DOS, and no downsizing of our fleet unless the fleet requirements nationwide go below the number of a/c we have. There's no limit on the fleet downsizing timeline. Unless you want to count the end of the current ACMI date of 2019. We decided to go down the business path instead of the RLA this time, since our last job protections worked out so well. (Not being sarcastic or trolling here, just stating fact as it relates to our little world.)

Good to hear you are safe. Question, hvy, is most of the DHL flying to the states or other places?

Now, it's the US, some Canada and Mexico. Didn't used to be that way. We also did Europe. Now, as you know, we don't.

Thanks for responding there hvy

Pardon my question, but was there a recent recall of union leadership at Astar? Like in the last year or so? Not trying to start a flame war, just trying to verify info from another source.

I remember reading there were problems with DHL and the union. Would that have something to do with it?

There was a recall around 2 years ago. The then MEC was going down a path that the majority of the membership (myself included) did not agree with in regards to contract negotiations. No rocks thrown toward them, just differences of opinion. Luckily the majority was correct in the course of action we chose.

Wasn't sure. Upon further reflection, thought this was in the last 6 months were one or more of the MEC got recalled or replaced. Capt Earl Smith comes to mind. Was he one?

>Wasn't sure. Upon further reflection, thought this was in the last 6 months were one or more of the MEC got recalled or replaced. Capt Earl Smith comes to mind. Was he one?<

Hardly. He was one of the MEC that was installed after the recall that led us to a new agreement. He stated up front that as soon as we had an agreement, he was going to step aside. We got one, and he did. We have a new interim Captain rep. now. And that's all I'm going to say on this subject. I get uncomfortable when people start posting other people's names on the net w/o their knowledge or consent. It's bad form, in my humble opinion.

Why I asked the questions. I'm halfway up to speed on the cargo side of ALPA and if I'm having a hard time keeping up on all the players, certainly others are also. Now I have it aligned with the other info I was given.

I would agree to the posting of names of a typical "Joe Nobody" as bad form, but being part of an ALPA union airline leadership pretty much nullifies that decorum. Particularly when their actions can affect their membership, the membership of other councils and other non union carriers in general. Let alone the public releases with their names on them. When you enter into any ALPA leadership roll, you become part of the public domain whether you intended so or not.

Get the facts straight
 

"Will Polar eventually only be carrying DHL and/or the little cargo the current fly".

I don't know where you are getting your misinformation from but just to set the record straight. Polar has been, for quite some time, doing very well as far as load factor goes in the current marketplace. East bound loads have always been maxed out, westbound loads have always been historically challenged industry-wide. Since the dollar has weakened the westbound loads have increased dramatically. The current challenge is of course industry-wide, fuel costs.

Polar has been carrying DHL freight for years along with numerous other freight fowarders, that is and always has been Polars business.

DHL bought a 49% stake in Polar Air Cargo WW, not AAWW. DHL is currently contracting 8 -400s from PACWW. Atlas has again creatively found away to take more of Polars flying, i.e. Alliance Agreement. The arbitrator ruled the alliance agreement was ok the first time as long as no Polar pilot was being harmed, it then followed that furloghed Polar crewmemebers were paid to stay at home and downgraded Captains were to be paid as Captains to fly as FOs. Then Atlas management changed the call signs on the flights being flown under the alliance agreement, claimed they were no longer alliance flights, and discontinued the payment to harmed Polar crewmembers. this is now scheduled to return before the ruling arbitrator later this month. Now a new alliance agreement to fly two -400s for DHL (contracted by DHL to Polar), 20 Captain upgrades on the Polar side not going to happen, can you see where this is going again. Poor management decisions all in order to bust a union. How much is this grievance going to cost??

AAWW management has been whipping the Polar crew force off the Atlas crew force since its aquisition of Polar, all to try and force the Polar crew force to give up its superior contract and accept the Atlas slave agreement. If the Atlas MEC had stood up to the Atlas management anti-labor tactics years ago, instead of bending over for a biscuit every time management offers one or runing scared, both groups would be in a far better place by now.

AAWW management has no intention of merging, they have simply found a great way to keep labor costs in check for many years. If the merger arbitration does find the merger legal (and that is is bigt if) do you really think AAWW management is going to let an arbitrator decide its labor costs in a combined CBA?

My hat is off to the Polar MEC for taking a stand and fighting for what is right against insurmountable odds, fighting not only the bullying tactics of AAWW management, but also the scandalous tactics of a fellow pilot groups MEC.

When this is finally finished one thing will be for certain, the AACI MEC legacy will be finished. One will be working in management as a gopher and the other will be working at the Subway shop.:D

Lancerdvr,

Thanks for the completely un-biased opinion. You are a very bitter person and should seek professional help.

I just heard a rumor one of the Polar arbitrators rendered a decision Mar 25. Any truth/basis?

No ruling. Arbitration (merger) to be continued . . . . July of 08.

Nice job Lance. It sounds very professional until you got to the end. You shouldn't have gone there. It makes you sound like a couple of others that post here.

It appears that the Polar selective amnesia of history has kicked in again and/or that dreaded Stockholm syndrome from your MEC captors has reared it's head again. There are plenty of old threads with that already on it. Some still with the documented history of the events. Just use the search bar. One side provides documented facts, the other side only blandishments.

On another note, the Polar MEC did attend their Article 8 hearing at ALPA National. At least the MEC Chairman and Neg. Chairman did on the charges filed by the Atlas MEC for violations of a number of the ALPA code of ethics and Bylaws. Decision should be rendered in one to two weeks.

The new DHL flying seems to be running pretty smoothly. I think there was one hickup on a last minute 11,000 kg payload over flight plan resulting in a new flight release requiring more fuel uploading. Resulting in a delay.

Delay
 

There was no Atlas charged delay due to the 11,000 kgs. increase in payload and the new flight plan. Ten minutes prior to departure DHL made the decision to increase the payload a second time. The total increase was 11,000 kgs. which required a new flight plan per Atlas GOM and a fuel increase. The loading was NOT complete when the flight crew was ready to push. When the DOC was contacted for push the crew was told to hold position for 18-25 minutes for inbound and outbound departures due to thunderstorms and routings. Once cleared for pushback numerous aircraft blocked the area behind the aircraft for another 20 minutes. The crew contacted DOC and inquired about the traffic and was informed that the DOC has no control of the aircraft and the pushback crew would have to find "a hole" to push.
Don't know where the rumor of a delay came from but I have the flight crew report which was submitted to the COO, DO and System Chief Pilot.

bpp

Actually, it also didn't help matters that the loading crew put some NWA cans on the Polar (Atlas a/c) flight, and vice versa. That slowed things down quite a bit too. Welcome to the cornfield!

I noted that the Polar MEC filed another grievance on flights going into HKG. Probably the ones under DHL that Atlas is flying currently.

Kind of sucks when things come back around to bite you in the tail due to short sightedness of "it will never happen to me".

On another note, Atlas is doing limited hiring at the moment. Preference of interview is given to those through the Atlas union hiring arrangement. ATA and Aloha are first in line at the moment (ALPA).

Guess we will know much later on the Polar grievance. Wish the guys at Atlas had an option to file a grievance when it hit them over and over again in the past with Polar.

https://crewroom.alpa.org/AAI072/Des...cumentID=42750In PDF I believe.

If you think you have been grieved then go for it. There is no restriction on filing. Winning is another story.
I have a question since you are obviously an Atlas guy. You mentioned that not much was happening at Atlas. I am wondering if this is due to the loads being down or contracts drying up, whatever. Here we are experiencing a pretty good drop in business. I was wondering how it is in other parts of the world. I mentioned in earlier posts that I foresaw a serious shakeup and it looks to me like it is coming to fruitation, 4 airlines filing for bankruptcy, DL and NW merging, UA and CO looking at mergers, etc. With jet fuel running $3.15/gal in the states (I cannot imagine what it is overseas) and the jumbo, even the -400 uses a lot of fuel, that it must be affecting business. We are getting 777 freighters and I was noticing the interior cubic space. It is not much less than the -800 which should be coming on line in the near future. If the much touted savings in fuel is true (2 engines vs 4) I cannot wonder if the illustrious jumbo that I dearly loved is going become obsolete. I hope not but one does wonder.
I know that Atlas is an ACMI carrier, and willl the downturn in the world economy affect any new contracts? I have a lot of friends whom I would hate to see on the street. Maybe you could enlighten me.

You have to have contract language to file a grievance on it's violation. Our scope is pretty limited due to factors like a recently purchased company used against us - acquiring a number of our A/C and contracts from us during our first contract negotiations. Resulting in about 200 furloughs, let alone the post 9/11 Bush NMB mandates. The same company requesting relief from agreed upon struck work rules prior to our strike release by the NMB to fly a number of our other contracts and A/C (@5).

So we didn't really have a lot to work with and no one to turn to for support, our sister union or ALPA National. No one was willing to hold a sympathy strike for us like we held for the same sister company a few years later -- they would only monitor their loads and request relief to fly our A/C and contracts. Resulting in what we got.

As far as ACMI, we get paid if 1 kilo is on board or if 120,000 is on board on our long term contracts (2-5 years). Customer pays for the fuel. We probably will make out alright. At least weather the storm. On the recent DHL alliance, I cannot give the metrics for it since I don't know what it goes for per kilo. The loads have been pretty good for a start. Usually 45 to 70 tons towards asia (always weak with all our customers) and 110 to 120 east bound to the US so far. Can't say what they are selling it for vs cost.

As far as the cubic space, the -400 is more weight driven than bulk. It tends to max out weight wise vs bulk. I'm not up to speed on the cubic space on a 777, but have been told it bulks out less than a 747-200. I do agree the 777 will beat out the 747-200 in fuel burn to lift and range. As to the 747-800 and continued 747-400 ops, that remains to be seen. Freight has always had to be there versus the passenger realm where the middle manager might have to go vs the conference call instead.

We pulled up the stats on the 777 and we found that it holds only a few pallets less than the jumbo and the belly held more. As for the height, I know the 747 has a restriction on height as far as the nose loader goes and the pallet heights are restricted also due to the upper deck, at least for the first few rows of pallets. But with the fuel burns being so much less, the extra weight would have to be significant to to justify 4 engines vs. 2. At least that is my take.

The only thing I'd add is those few pallets can make a big difference when dealing with slots. You use the slot whether its a Cessna 150 or 747, so restrictive airports can be a factor. Also, those extra pallets times 3 or 4 flights a day can be the profit margin?

That may be true, if you are comparing 4 engine aircraft to 4 engine aircraft, but when you subtract two engines and realize that the 777 burns the same amount as 2 1/2 engines (CF 6's) then a couple of pallets less will not kill you. While I know that the ACMI customers pay for the fuel, costs are never-the-less costs and if someone can do it cheaper and more reliably, guess where they will head. DHL/LH are going to the 777, Fed Ex is going to the 777, UPS is looking at the 777. I just feel that the price of fuel is going to be a killer with 4 engine aircraft. The only way to compete would be to drop the rates with very little profit margins. Lose an engine and guess what? There goes the margin.

May be ridicules - but imagine a B-742 re-equipped with a pair of triple seven motors. A cheap efficient workhorse alla the old 70 series stretch 8 (and with plenty of power to spare).

Boeing sells new airplanes however, and would simply buy up and destroy classic airframes if the idea worked. I had measured the pylon / ground clearance of a B-742 a while ago, and a 777 motor would clear - although a tight fit (at 20 inches to ground - 4 inches less than a -70a).

Might be too expensive for a Classic, but not so ridiculous for a 744. After all, how did they flight test the 777 engines before there were 777s?

Wind tunnels

Good point, Intruder.


http://www.airliners.net/photo/Gener...SF)/0313479/M/


http://www.airliners.net/photo/Gener...SF)/0326662/L/

Maybe hanging two on a 747 not so crazy after all??

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/9/...7/GE90115B.wmv

dpwn may consider selling dhl express us operations
 

DHL to sell the US Ops??
 

Read the WHOLE article. You will see that the evidence does not support the rumored sell or partnership suggested in your subject line. What will happen, I, for one, do not know but it is most important that we do not fuel harmful speculation. There are many jobs at stake and the spread of opinions as anything other than opinions is counter-productive.

I basically agree Clipperskip, albeit knowledge of what's being reported in the press can be very useful to any employee!

For the record, I for one, wouldn't dream of speculating and the subject line that offended you, is merely a cut and paste of the article's title.

Good luck to all of our American cousins.