American Airlines to outsource weather forecasts to Calif. company By Trebor Banstetter Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - In its latest cost-cutting move, American Airlines will contract out meteorological services to a San Francisco firm late this summer.
Weathernews Americas said it is building an aviation services center in Norman, Okla., to provide advanced weather services to American and its regional affiliate, American Eagle.
Major airlines typically rely on their own meteorologists to monitor weather patterns around hub airports.
Last year, American relocated its 20-person weather forecasting unit to Norman from Fort Worth to save money. Some of American''s meteorologists have been hired by Weathernews, according to that firm''s officials.
Russell Chew, American''s managing director of System Operations Control, said in a prepared statement that the deal will allow the airline to increase its operating efficiency while maintaining its weather forecasting services.
American has lost $6.2 billion during the past 27 months as it struggles with a steep downturn in business travel and fierce competition from discount airlines such as Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways.
Read the article, a number of them will go to the weather company. Why are you worried, they are not mechanics, this will cost the TWU dues, so be happy.
Plus the reporter from the Startle-gram (What? Hunh? There''s News?) got his facts wrong in a major way. American didn''t relocate the office last year; it''s still there just off the dispatch floor. It is now being relocated. Makes you wonder what else he got wrong.
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On 5/29/2003 8:53:30 AM eolesen wrote:
The aviation reporting in the Startle-gram just hasn''t been the same since Dan Reed left...
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I''m just unimpressed with their journalism as a whole. They have a few good people over there (some of which I work with on a daily basis in my present-soon-to-be-former job), but for the most part, they are poor journalists.
That''s why I buy the Morning News (That, and my wife works for Belo Corp.)
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On 5/29/2003 12:58:58 AM j7915 wrote:
Read the article, a number of them will go to the weather company. Why are you worried, they are not mechanics, this will cost the TWU dues, so be happy.
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So one minute you are saying that we should give up everything we did to save jobs, then when it turns out that we are losing them anyway you say "be happy"?
UAL hires two firms to handle repair work
Bloomberg News
UAL Corp.''s United Airlines plans to turn more plane maintenance over to Timco Aviation Services Inc. and ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering Inc., as the world''s second- biggest carrier pares costs, people familiar with the talks said.
Chicago-based United will save $75 million a year as it shifts work from two repair centers closing this month, said Greg Hall, senior vice president of maintenance and engineering. He declined to identify the companies getting the contracts.
Greensboro, N.C.-based Timco and ST Mobile Aerospace, a Mobile, Ala.-based unit of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd., will take over additional so-called heavy maintenance work, which entails extensive examination and repair of the airframe, cabin and engines, sources said.
UAL, working to lower its costs as it reorganizes under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is closing maintenance facilities in Oakland, California, and Indianapolis. The airline spent $560 million on maintenance last year, excluding the labor expense associated with it. Total labor
costs, the carrier''s biggest expense, last year were $7.1 billion.
With its new contract work, United will be increasing the amount of maintenance spending with outside companies by 50 percent to $300 million, Hall said.
UAL won the right to outsource more work earlier this year in a new agreement with the International Association of Machinists union. The company negotiated new contracts with all its unions this year, lowering labor expenses by $2.56 billion annually mainly through lower wages and new work rules.
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On 5/30/2003 7:55:09 AM Bob Owens wrote:
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On 5/29/2003 12:58:58 AM j7915 wrote:
Read the article, a number of them will go to the weather company. Why are you worried, they are not mechanics, this will cost the TWU dues, so be happy.
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So one minute you are saying that we should give up everything we did to save jobs, then when it turns out that we are losing them anyway you say "be happy"?
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Bob recognize sarcasm when you see it. No I don''t like reducing the union presence at AA, it weakens all of our positions. My point was directed at all these folks who seem to think that splintering up the work groups into separate unions is good.
The McCormick Group appears to be trying to become a collection of airline related unions, but are they going to link them when it comes to pressuring the employer? The courts have issued injunctions against unions, have they ever issued back-to-work injunctions against particular work groups represented by one union?
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On 5/30/2003 7:55:09 AM Bob Owens wrote:
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On 5/29/2003 12:58:58 AM j7915 wrote:
Read the article, a number of them will go to the weather company. Why are you worried, they are not mechanics, this will cost the TWU dues, so be happy.
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So one minute you are saying that we should give up everything we did to save jobs, then when it turns out that we are losing them anyway you say "be happy"?
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Bob recognize sarcasm when you see it. No I don''t like reducing the union presence at AA, it weakens all of our positions. My point was directed at all these folks who seem to think that splintering up the work groups into separate unions is good.
The McCormick Group appears to be trying to become a collection of airline related unions, but are they going to link them when it comes to pressuring the employer? The courts have issued injunctions against unions, have they ever issued back-to-work injunctions against particular work groups represented by one union?
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And what good has the industrial union philosophy done for us?