PeezDog

Just got an email form "someone" in management at ASA complaining that our company is understaffed and it's the pilots and everyone else's fault. We told you so and this is what you get. Now your under the microscope of our mainline partners. And you blame us because you can't properly staff our airline and you want us to help you? I.E. pick up open time.

I understand that sometimes stuff happens and we have some extra open time that needs to be covered. But this is their fault and of course they don't take the blame. How many times do we need to tell you your understaffed? How many times are we going to go through this? And why in God's name do you have to come out and blame your employees? Just offer us the 200% and say thank you.

samballs

How'd they blame ya, what did they say?

CriticalMach

& they refused me an interview because i have speeding tickets

Av8tion

They should just buy Comair... then they'll never be understaffed again...

MD11Wannabe

What does management expect when the pilot group is SEVERELY understaffed? We "must push through this"?!? Sorry, but the pilot group did not get the company into this "critical" position. It is time that management realizes that they are the ones burning the place to the ground and take some responsibility for their actions or lack there of!

Banshee365

By you saying that management is blaming us, that is simply your interpretation of the email. I didn't get that impression at all. I did sense some fear and frustration for once which may be what it takes to get some changes around here. The response from management in the recent past has been that our staffing numbers are okay but the utilization is where the problems are. We have no idea how many pilots are calling in sick to spite what we all think are staffing problems. We could be 200% overstaffed and if everyone decided to call in sick at certain times we would appear to be understaffed. I can totally see why some pilots may feel the need to do that because they need to get time off anyway they can, especially on reserve. I feel this is, unfortunately for the company, some of the things to be expected by scheduling reduced rest overnights, max duty day's, etc... I hope we can get the operation lined back up on our end and especially on the company's end.

CRJDriver

I think the email could have been worded a bit differently, a lot of pilots are po'd right now because of the way the email was written, and that is the last thing we need right now. I think one of the big issues is the schedule itself we get from DL/UA and the way they are building the pairings. I've been sitting in hotels a lot more, with one leg flights to very long overnights. A lot more DH's are showing up on pairings as well. ASA is not the only airline with staffing issues, ask any other regional pilot from Pinnacle, Compass, SkyWest, etc. and they'll tell you the same thing.

What does that have to do with anything? Depending of how many speeding tickets you have, I can tell you right now that ASA/XJT won't be the only airline that will have problems with this. Having several speeding tickets is telling HR that you can't follow rules/regulations.

MD11Wannabe

Granted, there are those who make an effort to "prove a point" out of spite, but I have not seen a lot of that occurring recently. I have witnessed the greater part of the pilot group trying to keep this airline running safely, efficiently, and on time to the best of its capabilities given the resources and variables that we have control over. Weather aside, I have seen a noticeable increase in flights being delayed/canceled due to staffing and crew legality on reduced rest overnights.

JustAnotherPLT

I too do not get the feeling of blame. I think our preformance numbers have been poor since last year and we are behind the curve. I see a lot problems that have developed in the scheduling department from lousy use of reserves to inefficent lines assigned to holders. As we compete against Pinncale who may or may not cost less, you're going to see us run lean.

With that said, I'm a firm believer we will be loosing some flying this fall. No this will not cause a furlough, however, this is why we are not hiring as much on our side of the fence compared to Xpress (that and we have zero growth).

captain beefy

I respect your opinion and interpretation of the email, however:


How did he not blame the pilots? Sick calls, personal issues, commuter policy, and my favorite...people not following the FOM. Aren't pilots the only ones who carry an FOM?



The other reasons he listed: MX(has nothing to do with pilot staffing), last minute flying(has been the excuse for the past 18 months and why every bid award is late via 16 emails all 8 minutes apart), ground damage(has nothing to do with staffing), weather(has nothing to do with staffing). I took that email as a slap in the face and I agree with you in that it sounded desperate and panicked.



Look at all the cancellations today and try and tell me how management can possibly think we're staffed properly. I also LOVE the last sentence about how it doesn't matter how we got here(even though he listed 11 reasons on how we got here according to him) and that our attention to our operation "is appreciated before, now and in the future". I believe that about as much as I believe OJ didn't do it..(but "if I did it"..awesome book by the way)

I really can't wait to see what Uncle Rico says in his weekly update. Every week has been a challenging week and I don't want a stellar kudos. This airline is an embarrassment to work for lately. I won't accept anything less than seeing every management pilots behind sitting ready reserve for the next week and I want to see upper management in the crew room offering apologies for causing this. I've seen better management at Enron. And I don't even want to hear a PEEP from ALPA saying how we "have" to unstack next month. I'm tired of our ALPA nancy's picking up the pieces for **** poor management.