Lufthansa pilots

[a320drivr]

Gentlemen,

There are rumors running rampant at Jetblue that LH wants us to start a cargo division and LH will provide the planes. Unfortunately being non union at JB this scares the piss out of me. We have no scope, etc. 67% of my brothers were too stupid to vote. Part 2 of this rumor is that these airplanes will be operated on a separate certificate and not flown by JB pilots. Have you guys heard anything around your house about this? Your union needs to start educating my fellow pilots.

[dontdoit]

Any non-unionised (pilot) community who has this sort of thing visited upon them deserves all they get, IMHO.

[falcon10]

Why would LH do this when they have a dedicated cargo division LH Cargo that currently had several MD-11s parked, terminated/suspended their agreement with World Airways, and has their joint operation Aerologic?

This rumor is laughable at best!

[Admiral346]

I am not the best informed guy, but I have not heard anything like that. Not even hinted, and not even touching the subject.

But who knows what they are planning...

Nic

[threemiles]

and run half of Jade Cargo at heavy losses...

who the heck would need additional cargo capacity these days (at 30% load factor) and why should it operate in the US?

[captjns]

What role would Jet Blue play? Does LH plan on converting their smaller buses into cargo jets? Do they plan on utilizing Jet Blues lower labor cost crews?

[RealQuax]

I wouldn't take this rumout too far away, for some jurisdictional and some political reasons:

As Lufthansa (as any other European carrier) is presently not allowed to perform cabotage within the states (that is collect goods within US and fly them to another airport in the states, see also Freedoms of the air - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ), it might make sense to use a registered US-carrier to do so, in which they hold a stake.

The political reasons is also at hands: Lufthansa has founded Lufthansa Italia (with the intent to use the brand but not Lufthansa-personnel), has founded JADE (see above), has founded a cargo-airline as joint venture with DHL (aerologic) in which they hold a 49%-stake, also with no Lufthansa-personnel.

There is a clear intent visible to get rid of their pilots with their CLA's et al.

And they used again and again airlines without pilot-representation to put them against their own personnel, it never worked out though. They all got representation or where integrated.

So, A320drvr, stay in touch with the rumours, if they happen to get some substance, give ALPA a hint in order to help getting the developments 'on track'.

Regards,

Quax.

[postman23]

And they used again and again airlines without pilot-representation to put them against their own personnel, it never worked out though. They all got representation or where integrated.

It did work, all 'new' pilots work under significant lesser T&Cs with less rights and options as they 'old' group of people. Hiring at mainline has been down as a consequence of people at subsidaries trickling back into mainline because of the sell-off or outsource of subsidairies. All because the union prevented worse.

LH's CEO has made it very clear that his primary mission in life is to brake the union, so far he has been pretty good at it, not only on the cockpit side of things.

LH Cargo was threatening to alter pilot contracts which was stopped by the union. The JB story makes perfect sense if you look at the history of the past 10 years or so. That will give you a lot more insight on LH's course than reading the current gossip pages.

And let it be said that their union (VC) gives more about the bugs hitting the LH cockpit windscreens than the interests of any non LH pilot.

Not trying to be cynical here, but had myself a Pepsi and can now say been there, done that, still waiting for the t-shirt.