Airlines may benefit from FINREG

Here is a link to the article. The new law may stop the wild swings in fuel prices by limiting speculators from hedging when they have no intention of taking delivery.

IAD JBA (third step) results

IAD had three cases scheduled for this Friday's JBA and all three have been resolved prior to presentation before the Board.

First was a case of seniority rights during a RIF. There was a question as to whether Art X J 2 was properly applied. After further review with the Company it was clear they followed the correct procedures and the grievance was therefore withdrawn.

Second was a case of bypass for EFS per LOA 69-1. This grievance was in regards to qualifications for a domestic GEM mission and was settled with a stop practice and partial payment.

Last was a case of unreasonable restrictions placed on the Art XX Personal Physicians Certification process by an Agent of the Company. This was the question before the Board; "Did the Company violate Article XX of the Agreement when it allowed its agent to add undue restrictions on the membership by requiring a physician to certify compliance with the law prior to recognizing an employee's physician for on the job injuries? If the Company did violate the Agreement, what then shall be the remedy?" This grievance was settled prior to the Board with an agreement that Doctors would not be required, by the Company or Corvel, to sign a form stating that they would follow the law of the state in which they were certified.

There are still cases on the docket for Friday, but none for IAD. The only cases currently waiting for the JBA from IAD are in regards to outsourcing of PV work. Currently these cases are being held in abeyance. There are approximately seven cases that are waiting second step answers and if denied, they will be moved to the third step.

I'll be in Chicago on Thursday and Friday for the east region JBA, and next week I'll be in San Francisco for negotiations.

That's all for now,

Bob

Ready for space flight?

It looks like a successful test for the first crewed sub-orbital flight by Virgin Galactic. According to the article tourism is the targeted market. From the comments section a person states this mode of transportation puts any destination within 45 minutes and further states FedEx did a study on the package delivery aspect of sub orbital flight. I'm sure this will take several years to get started, and it will probably decades into the future before this is a commercially viable mode of transportation, but I wonder how it this will impact the industry and our careers. After taking the 16 hour flight to Mumbai, I could certainly see why passengers would favor this option.

More 787 delays?

Here is the article. The plane may not be delivered until 2011.

And now for some good news

This is some decent industry news and has been predicted for a while. This is certainly good news for negotiations.