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Old 26th June 2008, 07:38 AM
Mike Scott Mike Scott is offline
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Unhappy UA to Cut 950 Pilots

CHICAGO (WLS) -- There's more fallout from rising fuel prices for Chicago-based United Airlines.
The company is cutting jobs for almost 1,000 pilots. Most of those jobs will be gone by the end of the summer.
Pilots are feeling it Monday, the impact of sweeping painful cuts at United Airlines.
The Elk Grove-based United announced Monday it will eliminate about 950 pilot jobs beginning at the end of the summer.
Story continues belowAdvertisementThe nation's second-largest carrier intends to send furlough notices to about 1,450 pilots with the least seniority.
In a statement, United says, "As we reduce the size of our fleet and take actions companywide to enable United to compete in an environment of record fuel prices, we must take the difficult, but necessary step to reduce the number of people we have to run our business; and today, we notified our pilots about expected furloughs."
After years of agreeing to deep concessions when United was in bankruptcy, the Airline Pilots Association says the shrinkage can't be blamed entirely on oil prices, but rather, the lack of a business plan.
"For a lot of pilots and their families, it's a very disruptive and disheartening time. And it's unfortunate that the company's business plan or lack thereof has led to this," said Dave Kelly, APA.
The layoffs announced Monday are part of a downsizing plan announced a few weeks ago. United plans to ground 100 gas-guzzling planes over the next 18 months, about 22 percent of its aircraft fleet.
United is also cutting as many as 1,600 salaried and management jobs. Many of those job cuts will be at its large operations center in Elk Grove Township.
Also certain to be impacted are flight attendants, mechanics and other union positions. But those cuts have not been announced yet. Joe Schweiterman, aviation expert at DePaul University, says shrinking is the only option for United right now, but even this may not go far enough.
"The numbers here are staggering and this may not be the end yet. There's certainly flight attendant workforce issues. The price of oil remains strong, which may mean more management jobs. Clearly, Wall Street's making a statement it wants bold action and it means a smaller airline," said Schweiterman.
Schweiterman says to expect other airlines to make similar cuts, including Chicago's other O'Hare hub airline, American.
United pilots seemed reticent to comment on the situation for fear of their jobs. Even with seven years at United, one pilot said he feels vulnerable he could be cut.
But the APA says after making steep concessions during the bankruptcy years, these cuts are not being shared enough by management.
"I think the time has come for this airline's management to show leadership and to demonstrate that they're willing to share in the pain as much as the pilots and other employees," said Kelly.
Pilots at other airlines are anticipating cuts, too, indicated by a billboard on I-294 near O'Hare paid for by the union representing American Airlines' pilots. With more than 250,000 late and cancelled flights last year, pilots at American are also critical of their management.
United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy says the initial furlough notices will go out in mid-July and take effect in September. She says the cuts will continue into next year.

PS: You can probably add three times as many F/A's that will be cut also
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  #2  
Old 26th June 2008, 09:40 AM
Andrew M Andrew M is offline
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Sad times indeed Mike!

I assume you'll be safe from these cuts as your higher up the ranks ?

Not to turn this into an oil debate, but oil still around the $135 mark, no matter what seems to happen or be talked about the price doesn't drop.

We all need oil back down below $100 ASAP
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  #3  
Old 26th June 2008, 12:36 PM
Greg McDonald Greg McDonald is offline
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Quote:
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We all need oil back down below $100 ASAP
Doubt that will ever happen again unfortunately.
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Old 26th June 2008, 01:08 PM
Andrew M Andrew M is offline
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Originally Posted by Greg McDonald View Post
Doubt that will ever happen again unfortunately.
Depends, we are not at Peak Oil in my opinion

Too much money being thrown around the oil markets, and out of the financial and other areas.

The US economy is not helping
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  #5  
Old 26th June 2008, 01:45 PM
Nigel C Nigel C is offline
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Nor is China's unwillingness to slow its economy.
Just a couple of days ago they agreed to pay up to 96.5% more for iron ore from Rio Tinto, so they obviously will try to get their hands on whatever resources they need at almost any cost. This doesn't bode well for the short to medium term price of crude.
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Old 26th June 2008, 10:30 PM
Ben W Ben W is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg McDonald View Post
Doubt that will ever happen again unfortunately.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. It may not happen in the very near future but I think it will happen sooner than most think. The biggest factor on world oil prices is the weak US dollar. A stronger dollar translates to lower oil prices. The other factor that may help lower oil prices is if the US starts drilling for massive amount of oil they have here on their own soil. I think the governments 'weaker dollar" policy, and their refusal to drill for the oil we already have (estimated to be at least a 100 year supply) is ridiculous considering what we're currently paying ($4.20 a gallon when I filled up yesterday). Public pressure is already showing with Bush and McCain wanting to open offshore drilling by state choice again....but we'll see if that happens!

The other ridiculous government mandate over here is the Ethanol one- let's take the main ingredient in over 60% of the nations food supply and mandate it's use as fuel.....which then drives the price of wheat and soybeans through the roof because there are more corn crops....which accounts for the 40% of food ingredients. Crazy!!!!!

Those two subjects account for the majority of the so-called recession over here. Higher food prices and higher fuel prices have a huge trickle down impact on everything and everyone- the airline industry being one of the hardest hit unfortunately.

Cheers,

Ben
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Old 26th June 2008, 11:25 PM
Greg McDonald Greg McDonald is offline
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Quote:
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$4.20 a gallon when I filled up yesterday
Wow...that's AUD96.5 cpl. I'd love to see that price gain but that DEFINITELY won't happen.
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Old 27th June 2008, 12:24 AM
Ben W Ben W is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg McDonald View Post
Wow...that's AUD96.5 cpl. I'd love to see that price gain but that DEFINITELY won't happen.
I work it out to $1.05 cpl. Which ever way you cut it, you guys are paying a lot more for fuel than we are. I left Australia 10 years ago and it was at .68 cpl. My Dad was saying the other day that it's at about 1.60 cpl now!
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  #9  
Old 27th June 2008, 01:36 AM
Grant Smith Grant Smith is offline
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Ben,

In some places it's cracking $1.70+ a litre...
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  #10  
Old 27th June 2008, 08:33 AM
Rhys Xanthis Rhys Xanthis is offline
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and diesel is 1.80cpl+
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