On a lighter note....
So, the Corporation (AMR) announced that it was closing our LAX crew domicile, and 'farming out' our flying there to SkyWest, and also it had put some flying up for bid out of DFW, and ExpressJet was awarded that.
We've known for some time that the company plan was to do this, it comes as no surprise. I guess what got us off-guard as a work group, is that we thought we would have heard something about it through company sources, or the union, such as 'Our flying in LAX is up for bid, how can we find a way to keep it.'
No, we find out from a quick eye on the news (The Dallas Morning News broke the story,) that one of our senior, and I means senior, domiciles is going to disappear.
Basically, it works like this; The company says they want the existing flying diversified, we compete on the market for that flying, instead of being normally awarded the flying.
I guess they decided it was cheaper to shut down an entire crew base (where we just updated the terminals, etc,) and move the planes to MIA and DFW (so far. They had a vacancy/displacement posted, and we are actually gaining 6 Captain positions, systemwide, although we are losing ALL the position in LAX, obviously.)
If you want to know more about vacancy/displacement, see here.
What frosts me, I guess more than anything, is they are going to be flown under the name "American Eagle."
In the 1990s, American Eagle was a consortium of carriers, kind of like what United has right now in ORD with Shuttle, ExpressJet, SkyWest, and GoJet. You book your fare for your trip, and then you fly whatever airline has those aircraft allocated to them. It is horribly inefficient, in that a SkyWest crew can be sitting on reserve, and a GoJet aircraft could be parked, needing a crew, but the flight cannot go out because you are only 'allowed' (legally and contractually,) to fly for one airline at a time. We all have different Op Specs, rules, contractual obligations and restrictions, so it is quite possible.
Also, you get 'whipsawing.' United can pit SkyWest against GoJet, and say GoJet says they can do the flights for $1.11/seat mile, if you can't match their cost we'll move some airplanes over to them... resulting in playing one airline off against another, work group against work group... a.k.a. 'Whipsawing.'
So they joined all the carriers together (Flagship, Simmons, Executive, and Wing's West,) who had been flying under the American Eagle name, and made them a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, under the parent company, AMR.
Once they were entirely integrated, a 'Flagship' crew could be sent out on a 'Wings West' aircraft, on a route flown by 'Simmons,' and they were all one seniority, one level of training and maintenance, the works. You can talk to some of the more senior crewmembers, and they can tell you what it was like before integration. In fact, when I was hired (way back in 2000,) at the time you could tell who had hired some of the older guys (and gals!) by where they sat in the old crew lounge at A9 (DFW.) Beach Bums over here, Flagship over there, Metro (talk about old) guys over there, etc... But it had gotten a lot better, and the different employee #s from when they were hired became the only way to tell, and that is not guaranteed. (our Employee #s are 6 digits, mine starts with a "1," (I was hired as a fueler by AA in 1989,) so my FOs who do not know me get to the airplane thinking they are flying with some old bastard.... well, they got half of that right!!
As I said, what frosts me, is that after 20 years of building up the Eagle 'brand,' the other carriers flying contracts for AA will be doing it under the "American Eagle" name. "Our" name. So Chatauqua Airlines, SkyWest, etc, when they fly for us, will be doing it under our logo and name. I know it seems like a little thing, but it is not. We were, and are for now, the last of the wholly owned subsidiaries. United had United Feeder Service, which was closed in 1999 (They flew the APTs, which was quite a monster turboprop,) and Delta had ComAir, who will fly their last flight Sep 29th of this year. Think of that... at one time, they were our ONLY true rivals on the National/Regional Airline playing field, and they are ceasing operations.... Sober thoughts there...
My airline will get a new name, we'll be 'spun off' from the mothership, and we will compete for contracts with everyone else to do the flying that we are doing right now. BUT, we will be able to compete for flying with United and Delta, or Southwest, or Virgin, or Bob's flying service... or we will be free to go it on our own, too.
But we know how well that worked for Independence Air, don't we?
There are lots of arguments for and against, and it will take years to ascertain whether it was a good, or even a brilliant decision... but if it was disaster, we will find out all too soon.
Time will tell.....
Scott
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