Us 3q Results

In the bankruptcy filing, U reported that it had $750 million of unrestricted cash on September 10. Looks like U was cash positive during the last 20 days of September to the tune of $7 million. On top of that, restricted cash grew from $720 million to $733 million. If only the rest of the year could mirror the last 20 days of September. B)

Nevertheless, the fourth quarter probably involves a large cash burn.
 
Gee, whadda ya know.

Reality looking you all in the face, hmmm.


Oh, BTW, Unemployment bennies do not kick right in, there is a waiting period. Happy Holidays on a "Welfare Christmas".

Oh BTW, there is no health coverage when you are unemployed, Cobra is shockingly expensive too.

Oh, BTW, retraining bennies are a mixed bag from state to state (and have been cut back in recent years). You might want to start checking on such right now before you assume that you will skate into a new profession on the taxpayer's dime.

Oh, BTW, Unemployment Compensation is taxed too, without any withholding, so plan accordingly.


Why do I know this, because I HAVE been through an airline's bankruptcy turned liquidation before.

So what some of you might consider "spin" from me is just a reflection of my attitude that is is smarter to make what you already have work, for as long as possible, until you can move on.

Time is running out, we fix this beast or the complaints I hear about the recent proposals or the new contracts will pale in comparison to what is is like to be without a job.

Yeah, I have already made fallback plans, stupid not too. But while there is still a chance to keep Airways alive then it is a lot smarter to keep it alive.

Wishing for liquidation is as bright a move as those of you made wishing for bankruptcy to occur. That has not met your expectations, trust me, unemployment will not either.

Good luck, to all of us.
 
willyloman said:
T. Boone Pickens, a West Texas oilman who has a good record of predicting future oil prices, says oil should go above $60.00 a barrel because of the supply and demand imbalance. They just can't refine enough oil to meet current demand.
[post="195922"][/post]​
And that will be when the entire United States of America economy will collapse. US unemployment will reach above 10% within a year after oil goes above $60 a barrel. I was at a recent economic development meeting a few months ago when the guess speaker (an Wall Street economist) made the comment that all US oil refineries are operating at 100%. The only problem is there aren't enough refineries. Nobody wanted to build, or were permitted to build, new refineries during the 90s.
 
bluetoad said:
"The mainline cost per available seat mile (CASM), excluding fuel and unusual items, of 9.74 cents for the third quarter 2004, was a 2.3 percent increase over the same period in 2003 "

Guess all these payroll cuts are not working :down:

Well, it would have been even worse without the lower wage scales. Payroll expense (at US Airways Group) for the quarter was actually DOWN 0.5% even with mainline capacity up 3%. The real killers, along with fuel, were aircraft rent & depreciation being up 11% ($17 million) and "other" operating expenses (whatever those are!) being up over 20%, or a whopping $63 million.

Labor CASM was down for the quarter (by 1.4%), and yet non-fuel CASM was up 2.3%. Something is very wrong here.

The fourth quarter is usually worse for cash burn than the third quarter, though some of the cash burn in the third quarter may have been related to aircraft deliveries. From eyeballing things, cash burn from operations was roughly $117 million, or $1.27 million/day (this excludes interest, restructuring, and depreciation/amortization). I think the fourth quarter will be OK unless fuel goes even higher, but it will get hairy in January when lease payments come due.
 
looks like the effect of swa at phl is starting to be seen in the bottom line.. after all Q3 is july,august and sept.. what should be 2 out of 3 very good months... this is what 29 and 49 $ fares will do.... absolutly pitiful...
 
FM2436 said:
And that will be when the entire United States of America economy will collapse. US unemployment will reach above 10% within a year after oil goes above $60 a barrel. I was at a recent economic development meeting a few months ago when the guess speaker (an Wall Street economist) made the comment that all US oil refineries are operating at 100%. The only problem is there aren't enough refineries. Nobody wanted to build, or were permitted to build, new refineries during the 90s.
[post="195983"][/post]​
The state of California is suing Shell oil. They are closing a refinery. They are refusing to sell it. They want to simply dismantle it. Actions like that will work to keep the volatility in the market futures and oil company quarterly profits high.
 
During Q3, the company burned through more than $2.4 million a day, ending with $757 million in unrestricted cash. That is $70 better than management predicted to Judge Mitchell during the S.1113(e) hearing when they told the Court US Airways would have only $687 million in available cash on Oct. 1.

US Airways' business plan anticipates oil at $44 per barrel an during the past two days there has been a $5 per barrel drop in price from Wednesday's NYMEX high for NYMEX West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures.

See Chart

Each $1 decrease in the price of crude oil per barrel decreases US Airways' fuel expense by $2 million per month.

Meanwhile, US Airways will realize additional savings obtained from the incremental changes to the ALPA and TWU contracts, as well as other savings could be obtained from long-term deals negotiated with the AFA, IAM, & CWA.

Cosmo & Borescope, in regard to your company, United, tonight the Financial Times reported, United also warned it was poised to breach the terms of its financing in the next quarter. “There is a strong possibility that we will not be able to comply with the club facility’s ebitdar [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and rent] covenant in the fourth quarter.

“Failure to comply with the ebitdar covenant would constitute a default. We are currently in discussions with the club facility lenders regarding this situation,â€￾ it said.

The potential covenant breach comes within a few months of having negotiated the new financing, reinforcing the speed at which fuel prices and the continued weak revenue environment have eroded balance sheets in the industry. United said its fuel costs had jumped by $291m in the quarter, up 57 per cent.

Although United is taking more aggressive action now to come up with a new business plan, cutting costs and capacity, the warning bears out criticism that the airline has been too slow to address its problems during bankruptcy.

See Story

Separately, the AP reported "Even though our unit revenue performance was on par with our peers, the pricing environment prohibits us from recouping high fuel costs," said chief financial officer Jake Brace. "Given the urgency of United's situation and the stark financial reality in the entire industry, United believes that it will have no choice but to seek significant additional labor savings beyond terminating and replacing our pension plans."

See Story

Cosmo & Borescope, if either airline fails it will lose about $200 million per year in code share revenue, which could be lethal for either airline, thus your glee at US Airways problems may be short sighted.

Regards,

USA320Pilot
 
Source: AFA PIT E-line.

SAirways loses $232 Million this quarter...some "clarity of thought"

Dear Members,

USAirways reported loss for this quarter was a staggering $232 million. (see
attachment)

I believe much of these losses are due to escalating and out-of-control
fuel prices, the bankruptcy threat and subsequent filing, as well as, and
including Dr. Bronner (RSA) informing the media in August that if they
couldn't get labor cost reduction, U could liquidate.

That surely didn't help our bookings going forward.

Labor finds itself in a quagmire. Here we sit with court imposed horrific
pay cuts, in our third concession, with many of the company proposals
demanding 'outsourcing' of labor jobs, furlough uncertainty, major anxiety,
and shattered morale.

IAM is at the table with a company proposal that allows for outsourcing and
the elimination of over 60% of the IAM and related members, CWA sits with
the most horrific proposal of all of labor including job elimination and
reduced wages that a teenager living at home could not use for spending
money.

AFA struggles to lessen the severity of concessions to our members knowing
that our leverage to secure a ratifiable agreement is evaporating with
these losses. Though ALPA has a ratified agreement, the pilot profession
and average compensation has been reduced to the compensation of a
topped-out Grey Hound bus driver. We have a management team that has
focused nearly 3 years (too long) hammering labor on cost cuts to below the
average low cost carrier. They missed the boat on developing a sound
business plan for this environment after the first bankruptcy, and now, they
run around trying to plug the holes they created in this sinking ship. We recognize
that the stakeholder RSA (Bronner and his Board) have allowed still too
high compensation to incentivize and retain this management, while allowing
and giving "carte blanch" to this management to abuse and shatter from
existence their greatest company assets...labor.

What do we do in this fragile state?

If we fight, we lose the company, and if we concede, we lose our personal
financial security to maintain our every day lives.

Somewhere in our battered minds and shattered hearts we must think
rationally, and put aside the anger for a moment... bring this all in
perspective and have "clarity of thought".

We are approaching the holidays. Our bookings are down, and our airline can
not afford to have one bad weather week, or any flight cancellations. If we
as labor lose interest in our company, focus on the negative, and let apathy
take over, there will be nothing left to negotiate... agree to.. disagree
with... live with...leave with... non-rev on.

During these next few months, and as hard as it is in managing our personal
and work lives with such a reduced wage and work conditions, please focus on
changing the "image" of our airline by assuring the customer that labor is
as dedicated and committed to providing the superior service they have been
accustomed to. We may then have some leverage to secure a better deal, and
reverse the momentum in the opposite direction of this downward spiral.

In solidarity,

Teddy
Local 40
 
Pitbull I could not agree with you more. However, after what went down in INT RES today it is goig to be hard for a lot of CWA employees in this local to be calm. What management in these locations fail to understand, they need us for them to have a job, hence they need to be supportive in this gloomy environment and try and keep us upbeat, not beat us down.

Thank you for the words of encouragement, I just hope enough read it and heed it.
 
PitBull:

PitBull said: "During these next few months, and as hard as it is in managing our personal and work lives with such a reduced wage and work conditions, please focus on changing the "image" of our airline by assuring the customer that labor is
as dedicated and committed to providing the superior service they have been
accustomed to. We may then have some leverage to secure a better deal, and
reverse the momentum in the opposite direction of this downward spiral."

PitBull: This is the best thing you have ever said.

Regards,

USA320Pilot
 

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