Airline Division Week In Review - February 26, 2012

Cape Air Leadership Goes the Extra Miles for its Members
Half a world away is not too far when it comes to representing Teamsters. This past week, Cape Air ExCo Chairman Captain Marilyn Rhude and Captains Aaron Tweeten and Yoshi Murata set out from Boston to meet with Teamster pilots at Cape Air’s most distant base on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific ocean. As part of the roadshows to explain their first contract and answer questions face to face with members around their system, the group left and flew first to Japan, before connecting and flying back eastward to Guam.
“It was a tremendous to go out and see our pilots on Guam,” said Captain Rhude. “It would have been very easy just to make a few calls out here, but this is too important. And for our pilots here, it is easy to feel that they are forgotten because of the distance involved. They’re not. They are a very important part of our crew force and more importantly, our Teamster family at Cape Air. Our not coming to Guam and meeting with them in person would have been unacceptable,” she went on to say.
Operating between Guam and the islands of Rota and Saipan, the Guam based crews are the only ones in the Cape Air system operating turbo prop aircraft. The rest of the fleet is comprised of Cessna 400 series piston twins, operating in the U.S. and Caribbean.

Airline Industry News

Governmental and Regulatory
President Barack Obama visited a Boeing 787 plant in Everett, Wash., last week. Obama said he would like Congress to continue funding an agency that handles national export credits. "As long as the playing field is level, you can compete with any worker, anywhere, anytime, in China, in Europe, it does not matter," he said. "If we have a level playing field, America will always win, because we have the best workers…The NTSB is calling for pilot seat and passenger cabin upgrades on Boeing 737’s…

Airline and Industry
UPS says it is still in talks with TNT Express about a merger. UPS had offered an unsolicited bid of $6.5 billion for the Dutch cargo carrier, which TNT rejected…not to be outdone, FedEx may submit a bit for TNT Express as well. "FedEx would benefit more from buying TNT because they're not as big in Europe," said Kevin Sterling, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets.
In Tulsa, Okla., the local Transport Workers Union has asked AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, to encourage early retirement for workers. AMR, which filed for bankruptcy last year, could eliminate up to 2,100 jobs in Tulsa…however they will not furlough 500 flight attendants this spring as previously planned, the carrier says. The number of flight attendants who signed up for job-sharing or voluntary leave made the furloughs unnecessary. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants called the development "tremendous news for all of our members."
Despite weak domestic demand and ample supplies, oil prices are on the rise, thanks in large part to financial speculation, analysts say. "Speculation is now part of the DNA of oil prices. You cannot separate the two anymore. There is no demarcation," said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "I still remain convinced oil prices are inflated."
American Airlines will meet its goal of generating $1 billion in revenue by adding flights, Chief Commercial Officer Virasb Vahidi said. He said an order for up to 925 new planes, along with a possible change to the pilots' contract to permit more regional jet flying, would allow the carrier to add flights.