magic rat

Here's ANOTHER answer....SIBA HKG! Sheeeeeeeeeet...I'd go!!!!!

Give me a break...let's grow a pair people!!! WE haul the freight!!!

MILLIONS PEOPLE!!!!! MILLIONS!!!

FoamFlier

As stated some post elsewhere, you don't actually think 'Daddy's little Girl' would ever be put on the street? There are plenty instances of unwarranted jobs being created to help someone out. (many asst. CPs, ect...)

---Congratulations! you have just been promoted to VP of paper shuffling and nose picking. Here is $200k, don't forget to put a stupid meaningless FCIF out there to justify your job. Good Luck!---

Young Jack

As long as we are getting the 757 and 777 online, I just dont see a furlough. I could see dropping the BLG at best. Peak will be here sooner than you think, the retrain cost I would imagine are excessive to get furloughed guys back (not to mention all the down training that you have to do), and hong kong would still have to be refilled. I get scared when I see aircraft orders getting cancelled and/or aircraft getting parked quicker. I do think though that the psychological posturing theory has some merit in regards to the contract.

nakazawa

I would like to know where all the flying is going. Have we stopped service to some cities? Have we gotten rid of the 'before 10 AM service', 'before 3 PM service', 'next day anytime service'? Don't we still have a mail contract? Don't we still have all the sorts? We may have combined a number of cities with the optimizer, which accounts for a few extra jets and a few extra crews, but as I see it, that's just system efficiencies. Throw in a couple of hiccups out of KIX (KIX-MEM) - or any Asian city - have a crew go fatigued, or a late aircraft, you'll see the system 'tweaking' get de-tuned a bit. As long as [we're] willing to be jammed, expect it!

HazCan

This is actually the kind of thing you want the company to consider (early outs, PLOAs, etc) before we go through some gigantic excess bid again. This is the kind of thing they should have done before they posted the 08-03. Sure, only a few guys might take it, but any bit helps mitigate the backward slide. I still think that the excess bid/furlough fear is them trying to fill HKG on the cheap and to get rid of passover pay. Just my $.02.

Gunter

The ramp up of the 757 makes retraining costs a non-factor and makes the next few months the perfect time to furlough

When the union stops answering phone calls and e-mails, you have to know something is up.

AFW_MD11

From the news clip on pilot.fedex.com

For the fourth quarter, the FedEx Express segment reported:

• Revenue of $6.37 billion, up 9% from last year’s $5.83 billion
• Operating income of $426 million, down 31% from $613 million last year
• Operating margin of 6.7%, down from 10.5% the previous year

"Operating income" = net profit
"Operating margin" = percent profit margin

So......while profits WERE down (year over year from the same quarter last year).....

FedEx Express still made $426 million and a 6.7% profit margin for the quarter.

That would equate to a PROFIT of $670.00 on your $10K investment - for the 3-month period referenced in this article.

(quite a bit more than $0.04)

the big question still remains.....can we sustain that level of profit if the price of oil keeps going up? is there a limit to how much fuel surcharge shippers are going to be willing to keep paying? we're already at record high surcharge levels now......

matty

They are doing this to prepare for a worst case scenario. Yes, we made money last quarter (minus "Office" charges), but how many people are going to start sending their stuff via Ground when the fuel surcharges top 30%? We (the airline part of FedEx) are built on time critical deliveries. When the deliveries aren't that time critical anymore, which part of the company needs to contract? Unfortunately, our part does...

The PLOA section has been there for years, but the difference is OR said it will be liberal...meaning if you can make more money elsewhere and don't want to move backward...GO. He will approve it. I think there will be some takers...BUT, I think the union needs to answer some questions.

Is there longevity protection?

What, if any, medical is there (I know it is in the pilot benefit book, but who even has a copy of that)?

What, if any, life insurance is still there?

The contract talks about vacancy bids while someone is out on PLOA, but it doesn't talk about excesses. If everyone else is excessed, are you excessed?

Can you still jumpseat?

Etc...etc....

magic rat

Look, I look at this PLOA thing as a "Hey, for those of you that don't know/forgot we have this PLOA thing...and we're going to be generous about it". Fine, thanks. I appreciate the effort...

BUT...

#1) Isn't that called MIL LEAVE?

#2) Do you actually think that THIS will solve all our problems?

It shouldn't have gotten this far.

Now if the price of oil goes up, all bets are off, I agree.

HIFLYR

How crazy I am. I though the furlough prevention section of the CBA was preventing them from simply furloughing the junior folks.