Bain Consulting

[tarp]

Bain Consulting/ United Ex

So let me get this straight.

United has asked Bain Consulting (a third party consultant with no contractual history) to review and ask for competitive bids from:

Skywest
Air Wisconsin
ACA
Mesa
Chatauqua
TSA
Someone else

Bain has also stated that Mesa is "industry standard" meaning that their rates are a baseline "average" that all other contracts will be compared to.

Out of this group, Bain is going to make a recommendation to UAL about who should carry loads where and what new contracts should be written. At $500K for a consulting fee, I guess this recommendation will hold a fair bit of weight.

I guess my comments questions are:

1.) I guess it's too much to think that ALPA national would step in on this. We've really done a good job of dividing and conquering. Skywest is non-union, Mesa set a new low standard for pay and work rules, United mainline wants scope or J4J and all the other MEC's are on their own in a dog-eat-dog world. Great.

2.) Do you think Bain will consider the weight of the current UEX carriers that Skywest, AirWhiskey and AtlanticCoast have large systems already in place that Mesa, TSA, etc would have to build?

3.) I guess Mesa is now the new UAL darling even though they haven't flown UAL colors in how many years? Do you think Bain will investigate why UAL and Mesa severed their contract? Does anyone have the true story?

4.) As an ex-consultant, do you think Bain has any openings? (trying to smile)

 

[Rottweiller]

When Bain were conducting their study they did in fact take into consideration such factors as on-time performance, bag mismatch / no arrival, staion performance etc. These factors had a "points" score associated with them.

Part of the Bain "experiment" was to not only find out what UAL should be paying as "fair market" but what each individual carrier is worth.

The general feeling is that Bain went back to UAL and said you should be paying $X's for this. UAL are making the UAEX carriers twitch by trying to lower it still but not by their own hand. "Let's see what everyone can give rock bottom and see if it beats Bain's number so we don't look like the bad guy's asking for the cut directly".

Well I am sorry, do they (UAL) think that by going rock bottom they will get continued good service when most areas of operation have had to be cut to meet the lower rates? It's UAL nickle and diming again. What they are looking to save at UAEX is a drop in the bucket from getting their own house in order.

 

[surplus1]

My friend, you are trying to apply logic to this whole situation. There is nothing logical about it.

Regional pilot groups really do not need to make concessionary agreements. Neither do all those subcontractors that UAL is pressuring. UAL's survival is not really dependent on how cheaply it can buy regional feed.

The whole thing is just the usual dog-eat-dog management scam.

 

[Rottweiller]

I think that is what I was saying. But yes I agree with you. What UAL does with it's UAEX and suppliers really doesn't make a $hit load of differance in the big picture at UAL.