Pilots playing the safety card to goose negotiations
For the second time, pilots seem to be questioning their airline safety as a negotiating ploy now that United pilots have filed suit in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York to issue a stay against the completion, set for Friday, to complete training on new procedures.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) move on United comes after the US Airways Pilots Association (USAPA) questioned US Airways safety prompting a suit by US Airways against its pilots. United accused the pilots of a bald attempt to influence negotiations on an integrated pilot contract covering both the United and Continental pilot groups. It cited FAA approval of its training procedures. Even so, United's Master Executive Council Chair Captain Wendy Morse, denied the two were related.
- United pilots have filed a lawsuit to issue a stay against the completion of training on new procedures, raising concerns about airline safety.
- The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is seeking more time to complete and absorb training before the company is issued its single operating certificate (SOC).
- United pilots claim they haven't had enough time to absorb Continental's procedures, which they are being trained to adopt.
- The dispute between eastern and western US Airways pilots continues, with safety concerns being raised by the eastern pilots.
- The Delta/Northwest merger is seen as a smooth process, unlike the ongoing pilot dispute at US Airways.
- Despite the challenges, United Continental Holdings predicts a $1.4 billion profit for 2011 and aims to achieve over $1 billion in cost and revenue synergies by 2013.
ALPA wants more time to complete and absorb training before the company is issued its single operating certificate (SOC), saying issuing the stay of Friday's deadline for incorporation of new procedures would allow management and union to negotiate their differences. However, United is hoping to achieve an integrated pilot contract and SOC by year end, although it has acknowledged a new contract may not happen. Pilots will get their day in court Wednesday.
United pilots are being trained to take on Continental's procedure and claim they haven't had long enough to absorb them with Friday's deadline for converting to them looming. They are also complaining that United's former reliance on classroom training has been replaced by more computer-based training.
Training, said Ms Morse, consisted of a 54-minute slide show and a question-and-answer period. They object to the fact that it did not include classroom training. Pilots are also objecting to relying on increased automation instead of hand flying out of wind shear as called for with United pilots. Ms Morse questioned the number of procedural changes that needed to be absorbed in a short time.
Pilot dispute at US Airways uses safety as foil
Six years after its merger with America West, eastern US Airways pilots continue to fight their western counterparts at American West which recently spilled over into a work to rule that had US Airways pilots publicly questioning US Airways safety.
An integrated contract was resolved in arbitration but eastern pilots rejected implementation, kicking out their union in the process and replacing ALPA with the USAPA. Western pilots took USAPA to court and won, only to have that decision rejected.
Recently, the airline charged USAPA with an "illegal slowdown" suing them in court. Of course the union denied it but the evidence submitted in court clearly indicated there was an action going on which impacted its on-time performance at Charlotte and Philadelphia, the hubs out of which the crews operated.
See related story on increased union activity impact on US carriers: Pilot union efforts at JetBlue fail, bigger issues continue across the industry
United unlikely to follow LCC union problems
The Delta/Northwest merger is seen as the smoothest on record and observers expect the United/Continental merger to follow suit. However, Delta/Northwest had a union deal early on in the process. Still achieving the dysfunction of the East-West pilot dispute at US Airways is unlikely to happen at what will become the world's largest airline.
Despite the problems, United Continental Holdings recently predicted a USD1.4 billion profit for 2011 as it leads the industry in revenue increases. It also forecast USD10 billion in revenues this year while seeing a drop in revenue per passenger from about 12% to about 9%.
CEO Jeff Smisek said the merger was going as expected although union progress was slower than anticipated. He hopes to achieve more than USD1 billion in cost and revenue synergies by 2013.
In addition to its merger challenges which include migrating from the Apollo to the Continental's Share reservations system, United is expected to integrate its new B787 into its fleet early next year on new service between Houston and Auckand and Lagos. This happens at the same time as the reservations change and these new, thin routes are expected to test the economics of the B787.