The EWR-LAX 762 flights are completely gone from the schedule before summer; not sure exactly when. Maybe a repositioning/utilization flight EWR-IAH will remain, but that's it.

It is more than repositioning the aircraft. Also, makes use of an idle aircraft.

For example: IAH - GRU route uses two 764s - down and back are both overnight (can not do a RT in a day like to Europe).

Hence, when the GRU 764 is at IAH, it can be used for a RT - IAH to LAX in the day. At the other end, it does a RT GRU to GIG.

EWR to GRU uses two 762's, but likely rotates with earlier flghts to Europe, rather than EWR to IAH RT - like before. The 762 from EWR is idle all day at GRU.

If it the planes are coming without any upfront costs and are expected to be profit generators from the start that would seem like good news for the employees, at least to me. Surely the health of the airline is their only chance of getting back some of their salary/benefit consessions.

The issue is that many employees are skeptical that the concessions are even necessary in the first place. Besides, the company said that there would be no snapbacks to previous wage levels. It's not that they need temporary cash to survive or even to expand - it's that they want to take advantage of the current climate to reduce their payroll liability. Or so it would seem.

There's a lot of contradicting info out there these days.

:rolleyes:

TMF weighs in: Is Continental Crazy? (answer: no).

was NOT in the first sentence supposed to be NOW?

I'm sure the lenders required CO management to make these cuts in order to do the new plane deal. CO was the last carrier that asked for cuts, long after all the others, and I believe layoffs have been kept to the minimum and from what I read they have kept everyone informed.

Say what you want about Gordo he has done a remarkable job with and for his employees. Now adding new equipment will let CO lead the pack as the economy for the airline industry improves.

I for one will keep buying my tickets (100k miles for 2005 and palns for 50k in 2006) because the entire package of crews, equipment and routes works for me. ^

I think I can understand that position. Last time I saw a notice, CO had about $1.5 Billion in cash on hand, so maybe there is some truth to the fact that the consessions aren't necessary. However it is a fact that the company is losing money and unless it can be proven that the company would return to profitability next year without consessions, it still seems reasonable that wage reductions are necessary; particularly as all airliners have had to do so. I guess it's a no-win situation. I think if CO turned a nice tidy profit employees would be a very good position to request wage increases. Hopefully things in that industry will get better.

Rather than do the collective bargaining dance in tune with economic and industry conditions, why not just put a good profit sharing plan in place? In fact, doesn't CO already have one in place and isn't it rolling out a potentially better one in early 2005?

Cyclical collective bargaining is old school. Generous profit sharing plans are the new age answer. Of course, we can argue about whether Continental's plan is sufficiently generous.

It may seem like a lot but $1.5 billion is not a great deal for an airline like CO, Bet US and UAL both have close to that on hand and they are in bankrupcty. Airlines have huge cash flow issues. This number has been relatively stagnant for the last year or two.

U actually has a lot less cash than that - ~$800M and is basically being kept aloft by GE Capital. Anyway, CO's $1.5B in cash is not sustainable at thier current loss rate - and they can't allow it to go much lower. All you can do is raise prices or lower costs, and we know CO can't raise prices if other airlines don't match - and they usually don't.

The real wild card isn't labor - it's fuel. Oil apears to be steady at 25% higher than last year. CO , AA and NW would all be in the black were it not for the price of gas, so all they can do is cut costs - the costs they can control. Gas they can't - salaries they can.

Boeing hasn't listed it yet on their website. Wonder when they'll up date it.

http://active.boeing.com/commercial/orders/index.cfm

This strikes me as a "Memorandum of Understanding" more then an actual order. I do not believe Boeing will list it until CO signs a firm order of intent and cuts a deposit check for the airframes.

And that evidently will not happen until labor agrees to the additional concessions (which I guess will allow CO to cut the check).

Mainline capacity is down 4% comparing the most recently reported quarter (i.e. Q3 2004) with the quarter immediately preceding the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. I for one am extremely gratified to see them finally growing the mainline fleet at all, considering that all recent growth has been RJ. It's also very pleasing to see that they are finally looking to add wide-body capacity, as none were previously in the fleet plan. But 2009? Eeek!