iAero Airways to shut down
- Thread starter azmedic
- Start date
That explains why 737 pilots from there are showing up interviews.
Swift has certainly been falling apart. I know they don’t have their longtime FBO at KPHX anymore, and I don’t know if they have the corporate jet charter anymore.
Somewhat coincidental in terms of shutting down, Set Jet ceased ops there at KSDL too just a few weeks back.
Swift has certainly been falling apart. I know they don’t have their longtime FBO at KPHX anymore, and I don’t know if they have the corporate jet charter anymore.
Somewhat coincidental in terms of shutting down, Set Jet ceased ops there at KSDL too just a few weeks back.
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
At least they got a memo. Bud of mine back in the day didn’t even get a phone call saying not to come to work. Showed up at the airport and anything not physically bolted to the terminal floor was gone.
He went through about 5 disconnected numbers before he got ahold of the owner’s wife, who said “yea, we shut down yesterday. I guess someone should have called you.”
I’m not 100% sure they stiffed him some cash, so I’ll leave that to your imagination.
He went through about 5 disconnected numbers before he got ahold of the owner’s wife, who said “yea, we shut down yesterday. I guess someone should have called you.”
I’m not 100% sure they stiffed him some cash, so I’ll leave that to your imagination.
But, did they have an assigned POI at the close?
Also, did Apple buy their brand name yet?
ChasenSFO
hen teaser
Wow, didn't see this coming. From the outside looking in, seemed like this niche had been working for them for quite a while. Though the Eastern and Dynamic crap was kinda weird.
In modern times, Thomas Cook didn't shut down any more gracefully. It still happens I guess.
I got to hear the first-hand story of when the Midway Airlines MDW station manager got the call that the airline was shut down and not 1 more flight would operate once those airborne landed, this being in the middle of the day at the airline's main hub. A very wild story which ends much like yours. If it could be carrier away or had wheels, it was gone. Petty cash distributed at the end of the day as "pay" for working for free to deal with the fallout for the last shift. A handsome reward for those who didn't rage quit on the spot.
In modern times, Thomas Cook didn't shut down any more gracefully. It still happens I guess.
arkflyr
Well-Known Member
The old Midway died slowly and then instantly all at once, I guess that is how most of them go. My dad flew there and was furloughed in late summer '91, I remember he had the ALPA code a phone set on the speed dial that fall as updates were coming in on the proposed merger with Northwest. They were to be the white knight that would save them but they ended up backing out of the deal at the last minute claiming that Midway's management had falsified their books.
Prior to Midway he had been at Braniff II, they went out of business in an instant and due to all the litigation with the bankruptcy he didn't get his last paycheck until 2001. It was just pennies on the dollar of what he was owed, and that wasn't much as he was still a first year flight engineer when the plug got pulled on that place.
BravoHotel
Well-Known Member
I wanted to do that once. When I flew owner / charter. 90% plus percentage of the time most people were on time and if they were going to be late they would call you or dispatch and let you know. But there was one group of people who wouldn't call, show up several hours late, ask us if we were able to accommodate an early departure then show up late to their original departure time. There were a few times where our duty day would time out and they would get very pissy...but I digress.
tlove482
Well-Known Member
Telling them you timed out must have been quite satisfying.
BravoHotel
Well-Known Member
Briefly. Trying to tell them, dispatch and our owner liaison person that we timed out was a PITA. The only person who was like, okay, and? Was the CP. That was/is a good Dude.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
So what was the conclusion of your dad's career story?
arkflyr
Well-Known Member
After Midway he became a salesman for a Ford dealer, then got on at MarkAir and was in the sim when they went bankrupt the first time in '92 and furloughed. He went out and bought his 737 type rating and then got on at a startup based in SLC called Morris Air, it was a refugee camp of furloughed airline pilots with guys from Midway, Eastern, PanAm, and America West. It was purchased by Southwest in late 1993 all of the pilots were stapled, treated as new hires, placed on probation, stripped of their Morris longevity and given dates of hire on 1/1/94. The only thing they did get was pay protection for the captains of which my dad was one, they kept their Morris captain rates even as FOs. He would upgrade there in four years and punch out early at 61 years old in 2012.
All that being said he still says it was the best thing that ever happened in his career. A career that spanned eight airlines*, two mergers, and three bankruptcy/furloughs.
In my opinion the early 90s was the absolute worst time to be an airline pilot. From the Eastern strike which started in March of '89 there was BN II that went under in September that year. Then after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990 the wheels really came off. Midway, and PanAm would be bankrupt the next year and liquidate along with what was left of Eastern. Plus TWA, America West, and Continental were all operating in chapter 11 and shedding pilots as well. @Richman did I miss any?
*you can make it 9 if you count a few weeks of training at UPS between BN and Midway in the fall of 1989 but UPS back then was a whole different animal and his friend there told him he would leave for Midway as well given the chance.
DE727UPS
Well-Known Member
I interviewed at UPS in maybe November/December of 89. Class date was Feb 1990. The interesting thing about my class was how many people left early on like your dad did. Half the class was gone in the first six months. I was one of the true freight dawgs having flown Convair's for a 121 supplemental before. Never flew for a legit pax airline like Midway or Braniff II. That made it easier for me to put up with the "conditions" at UPS back in the early days. It wasn't an airline. It was a trucking company that had airplanes. That was their mantra and they lived up to it. That said, UPS was hiring like crazy back then and the schedules were amazing. I got senior really fast and but even the junior schedules on the 727 were like FWA-SDF, sit the sort, go back. 5 on, 9 off. I'd legit fly 20 hours a month and I think the guarantee back then was 60 or 65. The IPA was born in early 1990 and that was a big deal. It was still UPS but slowly things got better. It was interesting to see how many guys HATED working at UPS back in the early 90's and left. Night freight (freight dawgs) had a stigma that took years to wear off and maybe to some extent is still there for some. For others, freight is great and they wouldn't want to work with the self loading cargo. Too bad your dad didn't hang in there Arkflyer. He would have seen the glory days and had some good seniority. Sounds like he had 18 years at SWA with 14 in the left seat. I think those were the fun times before SWA just became another airline job. I remember the Morris Air thing but didn't know they got stapled. Probably same thing happened with the Muse Air guys. Better than being on the street I guess.
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
Yea, the 90s were crap, and there were plenty of second order effects. Lots old school commuters were finding their flying outsourced to even lower bidders, so it was a poo waterfall.
There was also fallout from the 80s, where airlines were still figuring out deregulation. Some were hanging on to then old ways, while the new entrants weren’t really cut out for what they were doing.
arkflyr
Well-Known Member
That is exactly how he describes his brief experience with UPS, he wasn't a freight dog and the whole "we are not an airline we are just flying trucks" thing turned him off. That being said he admits he would have been better off with the knowledge of hindsight had he stayed. Still 18 years at SWA were pretty good, just had to adapt to the koolaide which took a bit. It's a totally different airline now for better and worse in some ways.
The Muse Air/Transtar guys I think were ALPA at the end and turned down the integration deal offered and SWA ended up not taking any of them and just liquidated the operation.
arkflyr
Well-Known Member
If you want to really dig into 80s ALPA history, my old man was at MVA when the Air Wisconsin merger happened. Talk about a poopstorm!
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
What people don’t want to accept in this business sometimes is what goes around comes around. Air Willie itself got hammered by UAL sometime after that. Bought out by UAL for their jet slots at ORD (back when it was slot limited) and immediately sold off all the turboprop operations and left them only with a handful of BAe jets.
I remember riding in the hotel van with a Willie crew around 94 or so. Captain was 59 and change and the FO was 58. That’s how hard their list got hammered.
Willie reconstituted itself after purchasing the remnants of WestPac Max after Western Pacific folded up, but you’d be hard pressed to call it the same outfit.
arkflyr
Well-Known Member
Yeah they had their ups and downs for sure back then. I don’t know if they were out from under the ALPA trusteeship by the time UAL bought them or if that would have made any difference. My old man was long gone by the time that happened. But some of his friends that stayed went with the Fokkers to India before being recalled later.
The funniest was UAL giving the ATPs to Hulas for UFS, or at least thinking that cheapskate could run those jalopies.
I’m surprised they are still around today after how hard the 50seat market has been hammered.
