Atlas News
 

A story from the latest Air Cargo World.

ATLAS HALTS MIAMI PROJECT

Amid layoffs and cost-cutting, Atlas Air is putting construction of its new maintenance hangar at Miami International Airport on hold.

Contractors for the cargo carrier had already laid the groundwork for the facility, situated on a 13-acre site where Eastern Airlines formerly had its headquarters.

Atlas said it would delay further work pending a one-year re-evaluation of the project.

Construction equipment that would have been used to build the new facility is still sitting on the site. The project was scheduled for completion in October, 2002.

The carrier laid off 85 of its 177 ground employees in Miami after furloughing 48 of it 188 crew members in Miami, part of broader cutbacks by the airline following a period of extraordinarily rapid growth.

Atlas began operating with six freighter aircraft in 1994. By 1997 it reached 17 and now boasts a fleet of 37 planes, but last week it decided to lay up six aircraft due to the dramatic slowdown in demand for maindeck cargo capacity from the airlines that it serves. Atlas flies for other airlines under lease agreements where it provides the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance.

The maintenance hangar was designed to accommodate three 747 freighters at a time.

Earlier this year Atlas won the rights to operate 10 flights a week to Brazil, but the carrier apparently has chosen not to exercise all of those rights. Vicki Foster, a spokeswoman at Atlas headquarters in Purchase, N.Y., said the U.S. Department of Transportation allowed it to fly to three cities - Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus. The carrier also asked for authority to serve Brasilia, Recife, Puerto Allegre, Belem, Belo Horizonte and Salvador de Bahia.

"I don't know why we didn't receive that authority," Foster said, adding that Atlas has petitioned DOT for the right to serve additional cities "so we can do a broader reach for cargo."

- By William Armbruster

Probably not a good time to strike!

"on a 13-acre site where Eastern Airlines formerly had its headquarters."

Does this mean the old EA building has already been demolished? Probably means the fountain has gone too then, famously turned off as part of the (Borman??)Eastern austerity drive.

Eastern and Atlas....two completely different airlines and yet....same pilot thinking (?) process.

Yet another article about the state of some of the cargo companies today. This one from: PlaneBusiness Banter
Volume 5, Issue 26
June 26, 2001
Holly Hegeman, Editor and Publisher

Atlas Air (CGO:NYSE), meanwhile, continues to sink slowly in the West. Or East. Depending upon which route they are flying. Shares of the ACMI freight carrier were down another 23% last week, closing at $15.08. Funny, the company issued a release saying that they intended on maintaining delivery dates for four new Boeing (BA:NYSE) 747-400's. But if the intent of the release was to reassure investors, I am afraid it had the opposite effect. Worried that the airline is going to drown in too much capacity, given the company's recent comments, investors shed shares of the company like a worn-out fur coat…

…And finally, speaking of Nasdaq-related issues, the folks at World Airways (WLDA:Nasdaq) are hanging on by their fingernails again. The airline announced last Friday that Nasdaq has once again given them a produce or get lost decree. In other words, Nasdaq has told the airline that its stock price has failed to meet the minimum $1.00 share price for at least 30 consecutive trading days.

The airline has until September 18th to meet the price requirements as established by Nasdaq, or the airline can be delisted from the Nasdaq Small Cap Market.

As part of the release, World CEO Hollis Harris said that he is confident the airline is going to make a profit for both the third and fourth quarter of this year.
.............................................

Seems like a lot of bets on the third and fourth quarters of this year. Let's hope it happens!

Without MC things are not so good...

.....and especially with his hand-picked management in charge. Suspect it will end up like Comair, reasonable offer turned down, short strike, the acceptance of that same offer with little if any improvement. These guys (and Atlas) are just not "big enough" for anyone to care.

We'll see if Atlas' customers are willing to have AAMT default on it's contracts for a month or two. When there's millions of metric tons of freight sitting on the ramp around the world getting rained on, we'll see if China Air, Emirates, cares. We'll also get to see if GSS/AACS or whatever they call themselves today, will scab or not. Going to a strike would be suicidal for AAMT.

Unfortunately, in the heat of labor negotiations, rationality doesn't always prevail. I agree, a strike would be suicidal for the Atlas crews. As far as cargo sitting around the world, I can think of a dozen carriers that would be more than willing to fly it for them at some great rates.

The EAL HQ building is (sadly) gone.

Dear Roadtrip, without wanting to start a slagging match, I'd contend that there are no "millions of tons gettting rained on" right now. That is the bloody problem in the -F business at the moment.

------------------
rgds Rat

Hey 411,

What the F**K is your beef with the Atlas Pilots?

If you are management masqurading as a low life pilot then you've got it licked mate, but if you are as you seem, a sad angry little person with nothing better to do than scan the forums waiting for an Atlas pilot to say something, then hide behind your pen name and critisize their every word while they try and better their life then shame on you, you are either NOT the professional pilot you claim to be or you are a scab, which one is it?

I'm waiting.....

LimeyAK
Is 411a not entitled to an opinion no matter if it is in disagreement with your assessment of the situation.

Surely name calling will not achieve any ultimate goals just exacerbates the situation

LimeyAK---
Management pilot. And by the way, in case you had not noticed, the airfreight business is in the toilet. Not the time to strike.
Don't suppose it will deter the Atlas pilots though. Blind ALPA "faith" once again.

Hey yooz guys,

Go ahead and strike please! This outfit is
ridden with greedy, evil, bangybottoms!!
I would love to see this mess grind to a halt. Atlas pilots (the one's who actually fly), bust their butt on a daily basis.
20 hour duty days are the norm and the bigwigs are stalling in nailing out a contract. They don't give a blank about
anything except their own fat wallets.
8 VP's, 30 Directors, 50 Managers, this place
is top heavy with See-More-Do-Less's!!!!
A 20 Million !st Quarter profit and they go and slough off 105 crewmembers and 200 ground workers. What a bunch of cowards!!
I'm gonna refer to (name removed) from now on as
Courage the Cowardly Dog. Grow some pills
you life-sucking parasite! Atlas line
pilots are the best! Those Chief pilots who sit behind their desks and criticize all
they survey can go scratch. Get out of the
office and blow the stink off ya! Hey now!!

Do not explicitly name people in here unless you are naming yourself in the process, please.

Sick Squid
Runours and News Moderator



[This message has been edited by Sick Squid (edited 30 June 2001).]

In this great free nation of ours, you strike when the government gives you permission.

You really think Atlas/Comair waited until the worst airline climate in 10 years to walk? A contract is a 3-4 year process, with your right to withhold your labor only granted at the bitter end.

Boy oh boy, thanks for the education Mr"Management Pilot", I had no idea about a slide in the economy, I'd better rush down to my local strike center and tell those furloughees that we have to wait until YOU tell us its ok to walk, as you are undoubtably in the know on such issues.

My beef is you seem to have a real sore spot on your posterior for Atlas pilots, haven't heard a peep from you regarding the Cathay pilots, or the mechanics and flight attendants at various carriers that are threatening industrial action soon.
Or are they well within their rights?,
do they not need their head examined?(as you like to put it) to have a work action in the current economic climate?.
Please, as Mr "Engineer" pointed out(BTW LOVE having my name highlighted, really has me quaking in my shoes, did you learn that from the GUV?) this is a public forum, spread some of your profound knowledge around, I'm sure the Cathay Boys and Girls will hang on your every word, don't just reserve your sour opinion for us, because it is readily apparent that you have more than enough to go around.

LimeyAK---
I rake the CX guys over the coals a lot, just have a look in the HKG forum. At least THEY have an UP market in which to strike INTO. As I have mentioned before, strike while the iron is HOT, not when it is stone cold. The RESULTS will be much more successful.

Solo un poco.

[This message has been edited by Ignition Override (edited 02 July 2001).]

So CX is striking in an "up" market and Atlas is not huh? Since Atlas operates in an exclusively international arena, exactly as CX does, and in fact flys CX cargo how does that work?

Before we submerge into a discussion of the differences between cargo and pax ops allow me to point out that most airlines make much more money on payload in their bellies than the pax in their seats. Therefore most if not all markets are in fact cargo markets.

Good luck to the Atlas aircrew. It IS a tough time to strike but mostly because Atlas management chose to make it so. It's rather difficult to believe that Atlas is in such supposedly dire financial straits after so many consecutive "record quarters" (including the last full one if I'm not mistaken). It is further interesting to observe that although Aircrew have been laid-off at an approximate 15% rate, no management cuts have occured. That the timing of these cuts had anything to do with market trends is questionable at best. Rather, the fact that contract negotiations have entered the compensation phase might be more germane.

Atlas crews are currently payed at slightly better than domestic commuter aircrew wages while Atlas management is payed on roughly the same scale as their counterparts at United Airlines. One wonders if the financial crisis Atlas management claims is merely that they MAY have to reduce their ridiculous salaries and bonuses to pay the aircrew a fair wage.

Is it just me or does it sound a little strange that while Atlas management's negotiating position is "We aren't a major airline so you can't expect your wages to be equivalent to the norm for those who fly 747s on these routes" ..... management continues to cash their major international airline paychecks. WTF over.

Oh by the way.... management has NOT taken any pay cuts during these supposedly trying financial circumstances requiring layoffs of other employees. Imagine that.

Again, good luck folks. Park them if you have to, we'll get you home.

I agree with zeny kastelein - a company the size of Atlas should have no more than 40 admin personnel. Keeping things tight in all departments is essential to survival in the present market.