A great Monday afternoon to everyone! How are you? The latest edition of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted!
This week we have a busy issue as we talk about the impact of the FAA fire at its Aurora Center outside of Chicago, (we also give you our take in a column about just why the FAA is NOT the problem here — it’s a much broader issue involving a total lack of recognition of how important aviation and transportation is to our economic well-being in the U.S.)
The FAA is simply the most convenient whipping boy.
Let’s move up a level, shall we? Let’s talk about funding. Or better yet, lack of.
We also discuss the fascinating back and forth that occurred last week — after Delta announced across the board raises for its employees and an advance on their 2014 profit sharing benefit.
While we acknowledge that this is great news for Delta employees — this just wasn’t a case of Richard Anderson donning a Santa hat two months early.
There were a couple of things going on here, including the IAM’s current card campaign going on for the Delta flight attendant group, and American Airlines’ tentative agreement with its flight attendant group — which was just about to be sent out the door — when the employee memo at Delta went viral.
That TA had given flight attendants at American “industry leading” numbers. Well, after the announcement from Richard, that was no longer the case.
The result? The APFA went back to management at American and got…more money.
Meanwhile, if we’re strictly talking pay rates, the flight attendants at Southwest Airlines still top everyone.
Oh, let’s see. We have new A380s arriving at DFW this week, we have Emirates apparently putting the screws to Airbus to get them to re-engine the A380, we have another new livery to show you (and this one is gorgeous) and oh yes, we talk about Sean Menke’s new gig at Hawaiian Airlines.
As for stocks, it was a lousy week for airline stocks last week. Meanwhile, analysts are busy tuning up their 3Q14 estimates, as this quarter comes to a close.
Oh, and yes, Wolfe Research analyst Hunter Keay downgraded shares of Delta Air Lines last week. Not unexpected. We agree with the reasons he gave. We go over these in this week’s issue too.
All this, and much, much, more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter!