Camping at 30 West
This is my first trip back flying since surgery two months ago. The last time I actually flew was in January. It feels good to get back into the swing of things, but they sure didn't break me in easy. I'm in the middle of an eight-day stretch that contains six Atlantic crossings.
I'm not complaining, though. I have a job, and these days that's a pretty good deal. Things have been good in that regard here at World until recently. While most airlines have had financial trouble for years and many have been furloughing, World has been profitable and growing. Now, though, the economic downturn has hit us, too. For the first time since the beginning of 2001, we have people on Furlough. 23 were let go effective March 31st and 11 more are being laid off effective April 15th.
Here I sit, in a cockpit with two other still-employed guys whose journey here has been much more eventful than mine. The First Officer shut down 3 of his last 8 airlines (he was a 19 year Captain at his last job) and the Flight Engineer 3 out of his last 7 (including a 12-year stint a few jobs ago). They both have amazingly good attitudes under the circumstances. It's the kind of thing, though, that makes me feel a little guilty... not guilty enough to wish that kind of track record on myself, but sad that anyone at all has had to endure that kind of suffering, and happy that, so far, I haven't.
Despite their history, they, too, are lucky. So far, they haven't been furloughed. Some of those laid off (or about to be laid off) have had equally challenging times and are, once again, out of work. This is an especially bad time to be out of work as there really are no flying jobs available at the moment.
What does a crew do in such challenging times? Well, my happy-to-be-here First Officer thought it might be nice to upgrade our food for the flight back to the United States. He wandered down to the grocery store and picked up some bread and hot dogs. Mind you, these aren't Oscar Meyer, they're German (great stuff, really). Oh, and we have mustard, too. German mustard. So here we are, camping out with hot dogs at 30 West making the best of our troubled times.
The crystal ball here in hazy, as I suppose it is anywhere. On one hand, our layoffs, at under 7% of our total group, are less than some other airlines out there. And operationally speaking (on an EBITDA basis), we're still doing okay financially, or so I hear anyway. But due to the invasion of corporate raiders and optimistic bankers, we're probably in bigger financial trouble than ever in the over 60-year history of the company. And the market for our services continues its descent into oblivion. How that will turn out is anyone's guess.
The entire industry has the seat belt sign on and I'm just along for the ride, but the hot dogs took my mind off the turbulence for a few minutes and I'm grateful for that. Time to have some chips and hope that I still have a job tomorrow...
V-
I'm not complaining, though. I have a job, and these days that's a pretty good deal. Things have been good in that regard here at World until recently. While most airlines have had financial trouble for years and many have been furloughing, World has been profitable and growing. Now, though, the economic downturn has hit us, too. For the first time since the beginning of 2001, we have people on Furlough. 23 were let go effective March 31st and 11 more are being laid off effective April 15th.
Here I sit, in a cockpit with two other still-employed guys whose journey here has been much more eventful than mine. The First Officer shut down 3 of his last 8 airlines (he was a 19 year Captain at his last job) and the Flight Engineer 3 out of his last 7 (including a 12-year stint a few jobs ago). They both have amazingly good attitudes under the circumstances. It's the kind of thing, though, that makes me feel a little guilty... not guilty enough to wish that kind of track record on myself, but sad that anyone at all has had to endure that kind of suffering, and happy that, so far, I haven't.
Despite their history, they, too, are lucky. So far, they haven't been furloughed. Some of those laid off (or about to be laid off) have had equally challenging times and are, once again, out of work. This is an especially bad time to be out of work as there really are no flying jobs available at the moment.
What does a crew do in such challenging times? Well, my happy-to-be-here First Officer thought it might be nice to upgrade our food for the flight back to the United States. He wandered down to the grocery store and picked up some bread and hot dogs. Mind you, these aren't Oscar Meyer, they're German (great stuff, really). Oh, and we have mustard, too. German mustard. So here we are, camping out with hot dogs at 30 West making the best of our troubled times.
The crystal ball here in hazy, as I suppose it is anywhere. On one hand, our layoffs, at under 7% of our total group, are less than some other airlines out there. And operationally speaking (on an EBITDA basis), we're still doing okay financially, or so I hear anyway. But due to the invasion of corporate raiders and optimistic bankers, we're probably in bigger financial trouble than ever in the over 60-year history of the company. And the market for our services continues its descent into oblivion. How that will turn out is anyone's guess.
The entire industry has the seat belt sign on and I'm just along for the ride, but the hot dogs took my mind off the turbulence for a few minutes and I'm grateful for that. Time to have some chips and hope that I still have a job tomorrow...
V-