Letter #1 To Charlie Ahmes
Mr. Charlie Ahmes
United Airlines, WHQHI
FAX: 847-700-2187
Dear Charlie,
I, to this day, remain puzzled on the current and future economics of the Philadelphia domicile. From a layman’s view and lacking access to the well touted “schedule optimizer” or enigma machine as I call it, it would appear we add value to the bottom line and success of United Airlines. It would also appear that we have consistently been adding value to the bottom line; otherwise the closure notice would have arrived months or years earlier.
As you have said, domiciles are regularly reviewed for financially viability and it would be difficult to convince me management has allowed the Philadelphia domicile to run in the red for an extended period of time. Except for the spoils of past Chairman and CEO, Goodwin, United has always run a frugal operation. The so-called niche to our 75-year heritage, I do believe.
As you also know, AFA at your personal request has presented the company with an array of cost saving tools that frankly would have been unbelievable in the past. Even the notion of reopening the CBA outside of the Section 6 arena is normally unthinkable. But Charlie, the unthinkable happened. The combined desire to save hundreds from one of the most stressful situations facing any person was realized.
Flight Attendants in Philadelphia have gone one additional step and developed a draft to save our home and quality of life, we actually conducted a survey, and the results were impressive. Those on active status due to our time constraints mainly answered the survey. Simply, we are seeking a regional domicile by combining the EWR and PHL domiciles. The combination has great potential due to our geographical proximity and ease of transportation to EWR.
The combination is nothing more than the current co-terminals we presently and successfully operate in our system. I have attached a copy of the survey for your review. Obviously it would require additional tweaking, especially on the reserve utilization front, but the ideal has a proven track record and exists in the CBA today.
Charlie, all may be over for us, but I like to hold a shred of hope our continued financial viability and commitment to United’s bottom line will be realized before we cease to exist. Unless aircraft planning is proposing a complete or near elimination of the station, we will require ID’s built from/to PHL to generate an operational savings…past history and the logic of economics has continually proven that to be true.
I wrote Mr. Brace on two separate occasions on behalf of every flight attendant in Philadelphia, desiring a deeper insight on the economics of our domicile, but unfortunately he failed to respond. To ignore those so touched by a radical business decision is in my opinion was a mistake in judgment as one of our present and future leaders.
Charlie, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Flight Attendant’s survey with the sincere desire to change your mind.
Sincerely,
Terry Knoy
LEC President Council 23 (Proud to be Philly)
CC: Glenn F. Tilton, FAX: 847-700-2355
Attachment (1)
VIA FACSIMILE & EMAIL
