United gone from Santiago Chile
Apr 22, 2005, 2:16 pm
#31
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Originally Posted by cesco.g
By comparision UA ZRH employs 9 people, 6 at the office in ZRH (sales & admin. only, no ticket counter) and 3 at the airport (taking turns for the 7-day shift).
Apr 22, 2005, 6:28 pm
#32
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Yeah, when UA pulled out of ZRH (in Feb 1998) there were probably 4 addl. check-in folks at the airport. More staff was at the ZRH downtown office with its own CTO and reservations team. I would imagine some 20+ folks, all in all.
A pretty lean operation today. The only thing I miss is a true UA ticketing facility, at least at the airport. UA Switzerland cannot even issue a ticket on its own ticket stock (!).
All airport ticketing is done at the Star ticket counter and issued on LH ticket stock, even if you are 100% on UA flights. Revenue which will never show up on your "UGS-counter"!
A pretty lean operation today. The only thing I miss is a true UA ticketing facility, at least at the airport. UA Switzerland cannot even issue a ticket on its own ticket stock (!).
All airport ticketing is done at the Star ticket counter and issued on LH ticket stock, even if you are 100% on UA flights. Revenue which will never show up on your "UGS-counter"!
Apr 22, 2005, 9:02 pm
#33
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Originally Posted by cesco.g
By comparision UA ZRH employs 9 people, 6 at the office in ZRH (sales & admin. only, no ticket counter) and 3 at the airport (taking turns for the 7-day shift).
Speaking of agents at the airport, are there some additional agents from GSA or LH for check-in? I guess there would be no way for 3 people to handle one flight of 767-322ER. It's interesting that UA has so small operation at ZRH. What about other operations in Europe? Are they pretty much same?
Apr 23, 2005, 1:38 pm
#34
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N227UA, SwissPort staff is handling check-in at 4-5 counters. According to the UA supervisor I spoke to there is a core group in training, who is expected then to man those UA-check positions on a regular basis.
Apr 23, 2005, 7:53 pm
#35
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Originally Posted by cesco.g
N227UA, SwissPort staff is handling check-in at 4-5 counters. According to the UA supervisor I spoke to there is a core group in training, who is expected then to man those UA-check positions on a regular basis.
That makes sense now. BTW, does SwissPort also handles non-UA flights? Do you know if UA usually get check-in counters from GSA in Europe generally?
Apr 26, 2005, 1:47 am
#36
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Originally Posted by formeraa
Second, many, many countries have in the past required the airlines to hire many people. Then, they impose "no layoff" provisions or very difficult layoff rules on these employees. For example, the Israeli TWA employees tried to sue AA -- even though AA discontinued service to Tel Aviv when it took over TW.
Apr 26, 2005, 5:03 am
#37
Join Date: Jan 2000
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Originally Posted by icedancer
This isn't unique to airlines, I believe.
Jobs that would require 2 people in the US, 5 people might do in Santiago. In a store, instead of having one sales clerk to ring up your purchase and sticking it in a bag, you'll have one writing out a receipt/invoice for your item, one manning the register, one meticulously wrapping your parcel for you and possibly one other doing some kind of bookkeeping along the way.
Jobs that would require 2 people in the US, 5 people might do in Santiago. In a store, instead of having one sales clerk to ring up your purchase and sticking it in a bag, you'll have one writing out a receipt/invoice for your item, one manning the register, one meticulously wrapping your parcel for you and possibly one other doing some kind of bookkeeping along the way.
This is how retailing was done in the United States once upon a time as well, and it probably still occurs in some smaller mom and pops. It's just a question of where a place is in its economic development.
as for the 110 staff, in terms of wages, the equivalent cost was probably only a fraction of hiring USA-based employees. Did UA hire/keep any local FAs for the SCL route?
Last edited by fallinasleep; Apr 26, 2005 at 5:07 am
Dec 22, 2012, 10:36 pm
#38
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This thread is many many years old, but for future reference, SCL was a base for UA's So American F/As and other operations, a leftover from the PanAm days. Some F/As moved but most lost their jobs.
Dec 25, 2012, 8:37 pm
#39
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Still don't get why a pmUA thread belongs to the consolidated forum...