Envoy getting its own place

[eolesen]

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/04/american-eagle-to-move-into-irving-offices-in-summer-2014.html/

Interesting.. this frees up the equivalent of a floor of office space at Centerport, but also clears out half the second floor at SOC and presumably the offices in the hangar at DFW.

More important, having the separate office space puts Envoy one step closer to a divestment if the right buyer comes along.

 

[IORFA]

Also sounds like the training center including the FU just got some more space. Maybe we can get rid of the portables!

 

[mwa]

yep, regional consolidation to begin

 

[algflyr]

It also seems like they are not really planning to shrink it too much. I would think shrinking Comair style out of existence seems less likely... 

 

[IORFA]

Still need an HDQ for the growing ground handling business. They claim that 8000 out of the 14000 employees work for the ground handling side.

 

[eolesen]

8000 people in ground operations seems a bit on the high side.

If you look at the number of employees who aren't tied to the airplanes, it looks to be around 5,600 and over half of those are concentrated in five stations (ORD/LGA/JFK/DFW/MIA), where they're not as likely to win ground handling business.

Source: http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/dispatchers-reach-tentative-agreement-with-american-eagle.html/

 

[IORFA]

Andrea Ahles posted a Q and A with ol' Pedro. He stated the 8000 number himself. If it is wrong, he being President of AE got it wrong. The Q and A is on the SkyTalk blog. Although when I read the Q and A the first time, Pedro doesn't sound like a very confident or knowledgeable person. So maybe he was completely wrong with his numbers.

 

[eolesen]

I'm not doubting the number. It just seems a bit too much for an airline with only ~1250 flights a day.

 

[IORFA]

But they do a ton of UAX flights in California. AA mainline and UAX in PDX. Just examples. Thus the higher staffing with fewer planes could very well be. They seem more interested in that function at this point than paying pilots to fly planes. From my understanding, they took over a ton of former Skywest ground operations the last few years.

 

[737823]

But they do a ton of UAX flights in California. AA mainline and UAX in PDX. Just examples. Thus the higher staffing with fewer planes could very well be. They seem more interested in that function at this point than paying pilots to fly planes. From my understanding, they took over a ton of former Skywest ground operations the last few years.

Isn't ground handling generally low margin? I do wonder what will happen in PDX with the merger, does US have mainline personnel?

Josh

 

[Kev3188]

AA mainline and UAX in PDX.

Do you happen to know when AE took over the UAX handling? It had been OO employees since early '98, when they won the flying from YV...
 
 

Isn't ground handling generally low margin? I do wonder what will happen in PDX with the merger, does US have mainline personnel?

Yes. HP was staffed (ramp & gate both) at the time of the US/HP merger.

 

[FWAAA]

Isn't ground handling generally low margin? I do wonder what will happen in PDX with the merger, does US have mainline personnel?

True, but the airline business (actually flying airplanes around) has had a long history of low or negative margins, so nothing new there.  

At least managing a ground handling business like Eagle (Envoy) will become doesn't involve any purchase of jet fuel or expensive, inefficient regional jets.   Eliminating those volatile inputs might make for a more consistent earnings model for Envoy going forward.   

 

[IORFA]

Yes, US is mainline employees in PDX. The former AA agents are hoping to get their real jobs back! KEV, I think it was no more than 2 years ago eagle got the ground handling contract.

 

[Kev3188]

Thx for the info!

Fingers crossed THAT the AA employees get a shot at returning.

 

[eolesen]

The former AA agents are hoping to get their real jobs back

They might also be interested in knowing there's apparently a vacancy in TUS due to a retirement...