CEO for a day

[X-U]

Piedmont is going to fly the A320?

If you dump the contract carriers, how are you going to carry passengers to OGS, LEB, etc.? From what I've read, the contract carriers do a fair job of bringing in the bucks for US. It is possible to take simplification too far.
The jobs are totally different. If the execs were paid $50,000 a year and got two extra days worth of salary from profit sharing, the quality of management would be that of a lemonade stand run by a six year old.

Should pilots be paid the same as a ramp rat? Fair's fair after all.

Is $5 million cash salary too much? Possibly. Apparently the stockholders disagree, and it's their money that's on the table. By some stock and vote for whomever you wish on the board of directors.

There would be no more Piedmont, or Dashes or RJS.
Follow WNs example, if someone lives in LEB or OGS and they want to fly somewhere, let them drive to the nearest airport you serve.

 

[700UW]

Funny nine A330, 30+ 757s and 10 use to be 12 767s were done in-house quite well and cost effective.

 

[X-U]

Kiss that 300 million goodbye.
1. We don't have a large enough widebody fleet which would make moving all mx inhouse a very expensive proposition for such a small fleet, heavy mx is usually only done in the off season.

2. Despite what every body sys about our "broken" pricing system we had the heaviest loads in history this past summer. You can kiss the yield numbers goodbye. It is the pricing system that made that $300 million. Otherwise all the sacrifices that everyone made would have been for nothing, and no one could even fathom getting a raise.

300 milion is a drop in the bucket when you are making capital decisions.

how much should we use? all of it? 25%?

Gee I thought it was the paycuts that made the $300 million... Legacy airline marketing just can't get past the idea of prefering to sell 10 $500 tickets instead of 25 $200 tickets, thus the perception of a need to fly 50 seat RJs instead of 150 seat mainline aircraft. Regarding mx, are you saying an A&P who works on an A-320 is unqualified to work on an A-330?

 

[flyingcat]

Gee I thought it was the paycuts that made the $300 million... Legacy airline marketing just can't get past the idea of prefering to sell 10 $500 tickets instead of 25 $200 tickets, thus the perception of a need to fly 50 seat RJs instead of 150 seat mainline aircraft. Regarding mx, are you saying an A&P who works on an A-320 is unqualified to work on an A-330?

I was refering to the heavy equipment that was sold off.

 

[fanlube]

Regarding mx, are you saying an A&P who works on an A-320 is unqualified to work on an A-330?

Beleive it or not mechanics are actually required to attend formal training taught by company maintenance instructors before they can perform maintenance on the A-330, I'm not sure if it is still required for the A-319-320-321 series or not believe so though. Also have to be ETOPS trained as well and attend training for the 767 before you can work on it as well, so to answer your question no you are not qualified to work the A-330 just because you work the A-320! Also have to attend reccurrent training for the Airbus fleet as well. Just a side note U east has a great training department the problem has always been managers didn't want to be short manpower and therefore wouldn't send guys to training so you have/had minimum guys trained and there have been sitiuations where airplanes have sat because nobody on shift was trained, hopefully this will start to change and anybody who needs training will get it!

 

[PITbull]

The execs received stock rather than cash to encourage them to make the company profitable. Unprofitable company = low stock price; profits = high stock price. This is pretty basic public company stuff. If the stock tanks, they lose. Meanhile, the employees get paychecks denominated in US dollars every time.

Would the employees prefer to be paid in stock? I doubt it.

That being said, if I were CEO, I would implement a profit-sharing plan. It's one of the reasons Southwest employees do such a bang-up job. They know that if they do a half-assed job, they get a paycheck, but if they do a good job and make happy customers, they get both a paycheck and a profit-sharing check.

On the other hand, I would want to avoid another UAL ESOP disaster.

I think I'll keep my current job!

Not only does SW receive profit sharing every single year since they commenced, but the employees (who are highly unionized) receive the highest wages in the industry!

You can keep your current job! What is to encourage the employees? Waiting until 2012????

The Execs received a collateral windfall...the stock rose quickly BECAUSE...must we say it again????

Labor took the lowest wages of the legacy carriers, cutbacks to the tune of $2.5 billion PLUS per year!

Frontline employees do MORE for less, DELIVER the highest standard of excellence in customer service. The stock rose because the EMPLOYEES DELIVER.

The Execs are the only group that benefited from a profitable company. Unfortunately, the execs profit in their pocket whether the company shows a profit OR not.

BTW, you forgot to add in your post (so I'll do it for you).. not only do the execs receive stock options in the tens and hundreds of thousand shares, but they receive bonuses for targeted performance, PLUS increases in their salary at 10-15% (just in one year along).

YES. Employees would like paid in stock, profit sharing ( just like the execs) as well as wage increases!!!!

What else do you got?

 

[PITbull]

The jobs are totally different. If the execs were paid $50,000 a year and got two extra days worth of salary from profit sharing, the quality of management would be that of a lemonade stand run by a six year old.

You must be sitting in a big seat, brother.

There's the door.

It is the opinion of many that a grade schooler COULD do a better job in producing than some of the lame execs at U.

 

[JS]

There would be no more Piedmont, or Dashes or RJS.
Follow WNs example, if someone lives in LEB or OGS and they want to fly somewhere, let them drive to the nearest airport you serve.

Every single airline has tried to be the next Southwest and it never works. Remember MetroJet?

If you cancel service to LEB, one of two things will happen. 1) Another carrier will take the contract (such as Commutair dba Continental Connection). or 2) should 1) not happen, people will drive to MHT and fly Southwest.

You must be sitting in a big seat, brother.

There's the door.

It is the opinion of many that a grade schooler COULD do a better job in producing than some of the lame execs at U.

What are you waiting for? Send in your resume!

 

[javaboy]

1. standard pricing on tickets similar to a milage base (500.00 transcon 250 mid country 150 1hr flights) (ok made need tweaking to exact work) rational pricing if you will

2. change the focus of the product to show the value of the product to the consumer right now many travelers go to the SWA website first because they beleive that it is the cheapest way to fly (GAO numbers show that LCC is cheaper than SWA) but if that customer books on SWA first because the perception is incorrect LCC never gets a shot at that revenue

3. Website enabling, check availability (meaning times not loads), pricing, confirm and purchase a ticket in less than 6 clicks

4. Continual media/advertising blitz to alter the perception of LCC (ie you hear the ding you know its an SWA commercial) along those lines take a shot at them too (regarding most recent other airlines charge for everything commercial) show travelers getting mad at addtional screening, lost bags, overbooking, flights delayed, then pan back to show an SWA ticket counter. Or even better show cattle been hearded in (split screen with a typical SWA boarding).. you've done the cattle call, now spend less and fly LCC (showing a leisurely boarding with assigned seats and have transparent (like the progressive insurance commercial) rates of LCC and SWA where LCCs are lower.

5. recongize outstanding customer service, (roaming quality control) perhaps they hand out a positive space pass for 4 (think family) for really great service include a hotel get away weekend and make sure it says THANK YOU. guess what by the time that employee gets back and brags about the free weekend on the company dollar a few more surrouding employees might give that extra effort too!

6. stop stepping over dollars to pick up nickels.

7. don't look to save a million dollars once,look to save a dollar a million times.

8. remember the guts of a successful business plan

Managment takes care of the employees
Employees take care of the customers
Customers take care stockholders.

😀

 

[Ramp Rogue]

Without a doubt, I would get rid of the Skycaps. I will never understand why they are being paid to do the same job that our ticket counter agents do. System wide, look at all of the money that would be saved by cancelling all skycap contracts. It would also open positions for some of those that are furloughed to come back to work. We would also be able to charge the customers that go specifically to the skycaps because they know they have either too many bags, or their bags are overweight. Once they have to come inside to the counter, we can charge them for excess and overweight baggage.

 

[dc3fanatic]

I'd have to bring back Seth.

 

[sharktooth]

If you dump the contract carriers, how are you going to carry passengers to OGS, LEB, etc.? From what I've read, the contract carriers do a fair job of bringing in the bucks for US. It is possible to take simplification too far.

Um, the same way SWA does, with real aircraft and not weed-whackers?

Have you not contemplated how SWA does their deal? See the A&E "Airline" show to see how SWA "manages" without several layers of "management", the likes of which infect the other carriers, like us. SWA saves money in many different ways, one of which is to not have crazy layers of management like we (both USairways and A&W) have.

See how SWA encourages the front-line employees to (gasp) make their own decisions, without fear of being chopped off at the knees, like us. When a truly bad decision was made, they tend towards a healing and educational approach rather than firing someone, like us.

Comparing us to SWA via MetroJet is an exercise in idiocy. MetroJet never tried to be like SWA. With the pathetic managers in charge, there is no way they could.

 

[PITbull]

Every single airline has tried to be the next Southwest and it never works. Remember MetroJet?

If you cancel service to LEB, one of two things will happen. 1) Another carrier will take the contract (such as Commutair dba Continental Connection). or 2) should 1) not happen, people will drive to MHT and fly Southwest.
What are you waiting for? Send in your resume!

Hey Clueless,

I already did....left Dec. 2005.

 

[700IAM]

Hey Clueless,

I already did....left Dec. 2005.

Left but forgot to take along your heart.

 

[nostradamus]

Mr Parker,

Cashing in your stock options caused alot of damage. It sent two messages to employees. 1 Greed. (on my way to the bank I have to tell you cost neutrel.) No matter what you or the spin doctors say, you can not take this damage back. 2 I can not figure this out yet but, the message felt was I do not think this stock will ever be worth this much anymore or I am not going to be here much longer so I better grab it now. (Spin doctors need not apply on this either.)

Solution? Increased costs IE raises, selectively, everyone paid at least average of other airlines, stand tough on the rest. Expansion, however slight, boosts morale. Or, merge with other airline, cash out and leave.

You bet on the present, not on the employees and the future, at the very least the lower beasts of the food chain sense this.

I may have made the same moves you did, but.