October 30, 2009 Newsletter

/ Teamsters Airline Division Week in Review News Letters / By

Airline Division News Items

 

United Mechanics Win Bid to Keep Maintenance Jobs at SFO

 

United Airlines says 60 jobs at San Francisco International Airport have been saved because its

local maintenance base came in with the best bid to upgrade the first class and business class

cabins in 32 of its Boeing 777 aircraft.  The local operation, which employs about 2,700 maintenance workers and engineers, beat out third party contractors that would have taken the work elsewhere, a United spokeswoman said. United now employs about 6,000 maintenance workers systemwide, down from about 16,000 prior to the September 11 attacks that sent the airline industry into a tailspin. The San Francisco operation, which is the airline's headquarters for maintenance, employed about 9,000 people at its pre-9/11 peak — and is fighting to hang on to every possible job.

 

Continental Becomes Part of Star Alliance

Continental Airlines on Tuesday joined the Star Alliance, which includes United and 23 other carriers. Continental's migration from the SkyTeam alliance to the Star Alliance is the most significant switch since airline alliances started more than 10 years ago, according to industry observers.  Continental estimates its membership in Star will produce $100 million more in revenues than its prior partnership.  The Teamsters represent the Continental mechanics and hope to represent Continental’s ramp agents in the near future.

US Airways Announces Plans to Cut 1,000 Workers

Struggling US Airways said Wednesday it will cut some 1,000 jobs next year, shift nearly all of its flying to its three hubs and Washington, and suspend several international routes.  The retrenching is aimed at putting its airplanes where the money is its hubs at Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Charlotte, N.C., as well as Washington. US Airways said flying from its hubs has been profitable.  The changes announced Wednesday include dropping Colorado Springs, Colo., which it said is too close to Denver to be profitable. It is also trimming Las Vegas flights from 64 departures per day to 36. The carrier is scaling back international flying from Philadelphia. It will suspend flights between there and London Gatwick; Birmingham, England; Milan, Italy; Shannon, Ireland; and Stockholm. It will also formally give up its government permission to fly between Philadelphia and Beijing, which it never used.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline said the job cuts will happen in the first half 2010 and will include 600 customer service agents and ramp service workers, 200 pilots, and about 150 flight attendants. The airline will close crew bases in Las Vegas and at LaGuardia airport in New York on Jan. 31, and in Boston on May 2.  The Teamsters represent US Airways Customer Service Agents.

 

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (AAWW) Reported Exceptionally Strong Third-quarter Results.

 

The US-based 747 ACMI and charter specialist said net income in the quarter was up 181% to $14.7 million, as total revenues fell 44.5% to $255.5 million. The jump in net income and fall in revenue both reflect AAWH’s exit from the scheduled service freight market, and the deconsolidation of POLAR AIR CARGO WORLDWIDE from the parent company for financial reporting purposes.  Also, AAWH is entering the passenger business, although in a way somewhat different from its cargo operations.  As expected, Atlas won a long-term contract from SONAIR (which acts as agent for the US-Africa Energy Association) to operate premium passenger charter service between Houston and Luanda (Angola). Atlas will operate the charter

service with two 747-400 passenger aircraft provided by SonAir’s parent company, which are being reconfigured into largely business and executive class configuration.

 

Contract negotiations with AAWW held on October 19th, 20th, and 21st. in Washington, DC were productive.  Tentative Agreements were reached on two sections and considerable progress was made on two other sections.  The next regular bargaining session will be on November 3rd, 4th and 5th in Washington, DC and a separate session on Scope will be held on November 6th, also in Washington, DC.

 

Omni International Pilots Making Good Progress in Negotiating Their First Contract

 

Local 747 Executive Council negotiators Clark Cameron, Charlie Wallace and Walt Reulbach made progress last week in mediated talks with Omni management towards their first Collective Bargaining Agreement for the crewmembers of Omni Air. They were joined by Local 747 representatives John Herron and Jennifer Petty, and Teamsters Airline Division International Representative Scott Hegland. In a week of talks in Dallas, TX, tentative agreements were reached on two more sections, one of which was the Training Section. Provisions were included to reduce training on holidays, to provide for more rest taking into account travel before and after training, and certain measures to ensure additional training is available if needed.

  

To date, tentative agreements have been reached on Sections 3 [Dues Check off and Union Security], 4 [Seniority], 5 [Resolution of Disputes], 6 [Supervisory  Duty], 12 [Training], 14 [Instructors and Check Airmen], 15 [Physical Examinations], 19 [Expenses], and 22 [Missing Internment, Hostage or Prisoner of War Benefits].  The next round of negotiations is scheduled for November 16-20 in Houston, TX.

 

Week in Review News Items

 

Labor Developments

U.S. carriers including Delta will have a harder time blocking union organizing campaigns under a change planned by a federal labor board. The proposal would let workers form unions with majority approval of those voting. United Airlines says 60 jobs at San Francisco International Airport have been saved because its local maintenance base came in with the best bid to upgrade the first class and business class cabins in 32 of its Boeing 777 aircraft. Hawaiian Airlines pilots have announced they believe their contract negotiations with the company have reached an impasse. Up to 14,000 British Airways cabin crew are to vote on whether to take industrial action in a dispute over contracts.

 

Regulatory & Safety

Southwest Airlines Co. has agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit that grew out of safety violations at the carrier and will pay the investors' lawyers $3.5 million. The Delta pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles had their licenses revoked after the FAA concluded they flew “carelessly and recklessly.”  

 

Airline Industry Finances

For U.S. airlines, last quarter, small was good. The three smallest of the major carriers – Alaska, JetBlue and AirTran – were the only ones to post profits. The biggest airlines reported the biggest losses. IATA reported that September international passenger traffic rose 0.3% year-over-year while cargo traffic fell 5.4%, but warned that the apparent improvement is "misleading" because yields remain disastrous. Airline confidence about profitability over the next 12 months has turned a corner, according to IATA’s latest Business Confidence Index. But European airline views about the future are far less glowing than their counterparts' in other areas of the world.   

 

Focus On American Airlines   

American Airlines says it will close a Kansas City, Mo., maintenance base next September because reduced flying means less need for such facilities. The company told employees about the move in a letter Wednesday. The union representing flight attendants at American is supporting the company's bid to win antitrust immunity and work more closely with British Airways and Iberia. That puts the flight attendants at odds with the pilots' union at American, which opposes immunity. A third union at American, the Transport Workers Association endorsed the antitrust immunity bid in June.  And Sir Richard Branson, President of rival airline Virgin Atlantic, said in a letter to President Obama in August: “BA and AA are seeking antitrust immunity because it will enable them to squeeze existing Heathrow-US competitors off key routes. Indeed, the European Commission told British Airways, American and Iberia that they may have to give up take-off and landing slots to press ahead with a transatlantic tie-up.

 

Miscellaneous

Japan set the stage for a huge bailout of Japan Airlines on Thursday, telling the struggling carrier to turn to a state-backed body for assistance — a move that ruled out a tougher stance by a new left-leaning government in Tokyo against the country’s powerful corporations… awaiting takeoff, seatback grinding your knees, seatmate snoring, babies wailing and you wonder — who's to blame? Well, Count von Zeppelin, it turns out?battery fires in personal electronic devices can be scary?more than half of the 22 battery fires in the cabin of passenger planes since 1999 have been in the last three years?one air safety expert suggested that these devices might be “the last unrestricted fire hazard” people can bring on airplanes?the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday said health authorities were underprepared for the increase in H1NI cases. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) also said federal agencies would be in bad shape if a mutated strain of H1N1 developed or if the nation faced another public health crisis while dealing with the so-called swine flu?visit Flu News Dashboard