111 AA pilots retired on 9-1-11!

[boknowsASA]

http://www.theairlinezone.com/2011/09/111-american-airlines-pilots-retire-on-sept-1/

 

[AA717driver]

Management's afraid another 500 could go on October 1. Most of those would be 777 or 767 CA's.

APA is in NO mood to give AMR the right to contract out the flying to the recent retirees while training takes place.

TC

 

[Andy]

I think that their retirement is tied to AMR stock prices with a 90 day lookback, which is likely what caused the jump in retirements.

AMR increased their recalls to 40/month. They'll need to increase further; they'll need a pretty big temporary training pipeline to fill that hole. 100/month on a temporary basis?
My guess is hiring off the street early 2012.

Has AMR been short on line pilots?

 

[Fubijaakr]

That's the problem managers are facing. They have no idea when the over-60 crowd will pull the trigger.

Perhaps they should staff like the worst case scenario would happen the first of the month.

Nah, that would require prior planning. What was I thinking?

 

[Andy]

That's the problem managers are facing. They have no idea when the over-60 crowd will pull the trigger.

Perhaps they should staff like the worst case scenario would happen the first of the month.

Nah, that would require prior planning. What was I thinking?

Vizzini, truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

 

[On Your Six]

I think that their retirement is tied to AMR stock prices with a 90 day lookback, which is likely what caused the jump in retirements.

AMR increased their recalls to 40/month. They'll need to increase further; they'll need a pretty big temporary training pipeline to fill that hole. 100/month on a temporary basis?
My guess is hiring off the street early 2012.

Has AMR been short on line pilots?

That 90 day lookback has to do with the stock being a lot higher before the Country deficit downgrade by S&P. Someone told me that there could have been up to 500 leaving yesterday. Couldn't that park entire fleets?(no Captains?)


Godspeed.


OYS

 

[Andy]

That 90 day lookback has to do with the stock being a lot higher before the Country deficit downgrade by S&P. Someone told me that there could have been up to 500 leaving yesterday. Couldn't that park entire fleets?(no Captains?)

Godspeed.

OYS

OYS, AMR's got a couple of problems.
First, the lookback tied to stock price. The article mentioned 60 but I've always heard 90, hence my question on length of lookback. The only way I can reconcile the discrepency is if you are able to lock in the 60 day lookback from the date you drop your retirement papers, which would then translate to 90 days prior to retirement.
AMR's seen this before - every time the stock has big drops. The number of pilots who put in retirement papers tends to be much less than the number of takers. However, from what I've read, the difference between lookback retirement payout and a retirement payout based on today's stock price is pretty big. The article puts that number at 200-300K. So unless AMR's stock recovers prior to 1 Oct, they may see another month of greater than 100 retirements.

Second, there are a lot of BK whispers associated with AMR. Since the pilots can receive a lump sum on retirement, there may be a marked increase in pilot retirements at AMR if the whispers get louder. I'm sure many remember the mass exodus at Delta prior to them filing for BK.

I don't know how many widebody CAs AMR can churn out every month but that may need to run full bore for quite a while if they see a lot of retirements, even if AMR sees a decrease in block hours. Again, look at Delta for similar comparisons.

I doubt that entire fleets would need to be parked but there would likely be quite a few schedule disruptions before things settled down.

I can think of a few things AMR could try to keep the schedule running smoothly:
1) Try to get a court injunction to stop retirements; I think that Delta tried this maneuver. Problem is, AMR's contract still reads as age 60 being a 'normal' retirement age.
2) They could hire back retirees on a temporary basis. But my understanding is that contract talks between AMR and APA are strained so I doubt that APA would grant a waiver.
3) Do a stock buyback to drive the price higher which would result in pilots cancelling their retirements. The problem is that if you drive the price above $5, it becomes a big target for the shorts.
I'm sure that AMR management's kicking around a lot of different ideas.

 

[V1rowt8]

Vizzini, truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

" he's just getting started, and he's Sicillian"!

 

[bpapaDC8]

And YOU: friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless! Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed, in Greenland?

 

[Tomct]

Don't see how the stock "buy-back" program will work.....AMR has no money. Hence the BK talks. Going to get interesting.