The sorry tale of Atlas Air and its pilots – a change of focus is needed

31/05/2018

Pilots are no shrinking violets, as we say in the UK. You only have to read a pilot message board to see frequent gripes about what is undoubtedly a tough job.

But the recent onslaught of PR from pilots flying indirectly for Amazon – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters divisions representing pilots at Atlas, Southern and ABX – shrouds a darker story of labour relations with management.

Perhaps emboldened by Trump policies, and certainly working towards negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement ...

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John
May 31, 2018 at 5:38 pm
Some points to consider. You can’t write up maintenance issues that don’t exist. The minimum fuel is derived from the company’s dispatchers and is a legal requirement a pilot can’t ignore. Atlas tries to operate at maximum efficiency, which means maximum load for the route. This can lead to a very small difference between maximum and minimum fuel for takeoff. Ignored in this article is the major change of the system operations and lots of experience staff due to the move. As in a huge turn over in the pilot group and you have a perfect storm to cause operational problems. I would encourage some more in depth retiring in this subject. You only are scratching the surface of the challenges in this area of the industry.

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- Alex Lennane
  June 01, 2018 at 1:30 pm
  Thanks for your comment, John. I do appreciate that there are far more complex issues here than this article allowed for. But perhaps that’s even more reason, then, for management and unions to sit down and talk through the operational challenges, instead of fighting through the media or courts.
  
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  - John
    June 03, 2018 at 3:00 pm
    In my experience at a few airlines, management has a distinct advantage. They play that by not really talking out practical solutions until severe impact occur to their operations. In a couple of airlines they have even decided to not show up, costing money a time to the unions. With US carriers being bound by Railroad Labor Act they don’t have the same ball field to play in that say a European carrier does.
    
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