Take a look at that airplane in the photo at right. It will undergo some 'remodeling' very soon. United Airlines, which operates a fleet of 56 Airbus A320 aircraft as low-fare all-economy Ted flights, announced today that Ted will no longer exist after the end of 2009. The airline intends to reintegrate the aircraft into its mainline fleet, meaning that the 56 planes now flying in the Ted livery all will be repainted in the standard United livery, and will be reconfigured to include a First Class cabin.
That's not all. United also announced that it will retire six Boeing 747-400 aircraft, and all 94 of the Boeing 737 type, thus eliminating the oldest and least fuel-efficient aircraft from its fleet. Most of this fleet reduction will take place before the end of 2008, a move that will reduce the airline's mainline domestic capacity in the fourth quarter of 2008 by 14 percent, year over year.
Along with a reduction in the size of its fleet and a paring of flight frequencies on certain routes, the carrier announced that layoffs are forthcoming for well over 1,000 employees. A United Airlines press release issued today, June 4, 2008, included the following paragraph:
As United reduces the size of its operation, it is further reducing staff. United expects to reduce the number of salaried and management employees and contractors by 1,400-1,600, including the previously announced 500 employee reduction by year-end, and the company will determine the number of front-line employee furloughs as it finalizes the schedule over the next month.In other words, no word yet on exactly which work groups will be affected, or when -- but the furloughs are coming.
United's announcement today parallels plans made public by American Airlines last month, when that airline revealed it would retire 40 to 45 mainline aircraft (mostly the MD-80 series), as well as 35 to 40 regional jets and some turbo-prop aircraft from American Eagle. American's capacity reduction also will result in job cuts that will affect thousands of American Airlines workers.
[Photo Source]
3 comments:
Don't know if it's appropriate to ask...but I'm wondering if your blog readers might be interested in my aviation-related t-shirt, hats, mugs and more. My latest is a "No Slam-Clicks" design. Go to www.flying37.com to check it out.
Perhaps with all that additional profit they can hire a customer service specialist.
I have just finished 3 weeks of hell with United. I booked three flights with united in the last three weeks and every one of them has had a problem. The timeline:
May 17th: I booked two flights, one for my wife and one for myself. I used reward points for my ticket to depart on June 10th, and I purchased hers to depart on June 11th. We shared the return flight.
May 19th: I noticed my reward points had not decreased and checked my credit card statement to see that the $7.50 booking fee had not been charged. With my May 17th confirmation in hand I called the ticketing agents and spent 1.5 hours getting it all worked out. Apparently my reservation had been canceled by someone or something other than myself. My favorite part, and quite unbeknownst to myself, united charged me a $25 phone processing charge to re-book a flight I booked on the internet two days earlier. Audacious, I think so.
May 30th: My wife had a flight to San Francisco through work scheduled to depart at 7am. At 5am my wife received a voicemail from a call that happened at 4am informing us that the flight had been canceled due to "Maintenance Issues." Completely speculation, but it sounded more like, "The price of gas just jumped $11/barrel and the flight isn't even a quarter full." The only option on united was to re-route, which unfortunately landed her there about 1 hour after her meeting. I had to get up while she was getting ready and call Southwest (a very reliable and customer friendly airline) to book her on one of their flights. United informed her that she can not request a refund until her "flight had expired."
June 2: My wife calls United to be issued a refund and is told that she opted out of her flight by choice and united was not obligated to refund her anything. This did not sit very well so after asking to speak to the customer representative's manager we got it worked out and IF the canceled flight qualifies for a refund we will be issued a credit in 3-4 months (they will probably be bankrupt again by that time).
June 5: Remember that flight my wife and I booked way back on May 17th? The one where hers was booked alright and mine was canceled? Well, after paying meticulous attention to the times we are flying as she could not take off the 11th for work reasons, her 10:30pm flight was actually scheduled for 8:54am. I called United and the reservation specialist informed me that in order to change the flight at this point we would be charged a transaction fee of $150 and the fare difference of $550. Just to recap, this is not something that I did and I don't find it very coincidental that this is the same night that my flight was canceled by the system after booking it. I got the run around and eventually talked to woman named Sara Gilmore (employee number V79) who claimed that she was the highest person I could speak with. I explained to her the situation again to no avail.
Sara: I am the highest manager on shift.
Ryan: Just so we are clear; I booked to flights on the 17th of May. Some system generated problem occurred and my flight was canceled and her flight times were changed. This was not my fault but you are going to charge me $700 because of something that is United's fault?
Sara: Yes.
I eventually called the "place where I can file a complaint" and was told that they can not do anything until the date of the flight has past. They also informed me that I need to talk to the reservations desk with any current complaints. This was all before I discovered the $25 telephone processing fee for a reservation booked online that was canceled by United.
I have flown United for nearly 10 years now. I think it is safe to say that United has gone down the tubes. I am canceling my rewards plan with points still on it and I refuse to fly United in any circumstance where it is my choice. I would rather drive.
I know most of us think it's not worth responding to such an inane post, but someone needs to put the record straight.
Anyone who thinks the airline industry is making 'additional profit' is clearly incapable of grasping even the simplest concepts being communicated by the ever more facile six o'clock news. Most of us know that oil prices are hurting the airlines, and this is why United are shedding routes.
I'm not going to point out the contradictory elements of Ryan's post - most of them are pretty obvious. I do think this entire post is bogus for a number of reasons:
- Anyone who has been flying United for ten years probably knows the actual name for their 'rewards program'.
- Most of the numbers used in this post are inaccurate - the $7.50 fee and the $25 fee exist, but not in this amount.
- United employee numbers don't follow a format consistent with 'V79'.
My guess is that Ryan flew coach once this year, and once ten years ago, and thinks that this makes him some kind of hotshot.
I think United has its fair share of problems, but occasional passengers on a super saver fare who resent not getting the same treatment as first class passengers should probably avoid inane criticism.
Post a Comment