NetJets to lay off 495 pilots in the U.S.

by B.N. Sullivan

Fractional jet operator NetJets, Inc. has announced plans to cut 495 pilot jobs in the U.S. The layoffs will become effective on January 15, 2010.

Earlier this year NetJets had offered pilots early retirements and voluntary unpaid leaves of absence in an effort to downsize without having to resort to involuntary furloughs. Apparently those measures were not sufficient to relieve overstaffing.

NetJets pilots are represented by the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), an independent union. Today NJASAP President Capt. Mark Luthi said, "After several months of continuous efforts to mitigate a pilot furlough, we have reached a point at which the economic realities that challenge our employer can no longer be offset by the ground-breaking initiatives implemented earlier this year."

From a news release issued by the NJASP Executive Board:

Recognizing the seriousness of the economic crisis early on, Association leaders sought to supplement its furlough mitigation efforts by forming the NJASAP Furlough Working Group, which was tasked with preparing a robust pilot assistance initiative should a reduction in force take place.

"Hoping a working group's efforts prove unnecessary is hardly an appropriate mindset for a responsible leadership group; however, I freely admit the Board and I would have preferred the group's year-long preparations been for naught," Luthi said.

Almost one year of planning has positioned the Association to offer immediate access to information and resources designed to assist each furloughed crewmember and his or her family. In addition to a series of informational teleconferences, the Union has launched a web-based Furloughed Pilot Resource Center and has prepared a comprehensive resource guide that outlines financial, unemployment, and worker retraining benefits as well as alternate insurance options and various assistance grants.

The Executive Board has also approved a seven-month dues refund and the immediate cessation of dues collected from affected pilots and has purchased a year-long subscription to two aviation job sites for each pilot. Additionally, the FWG is finalizing an outreach program that will keep furloughed pilots in touch with their peers by paring them with active pilots.

In a statement to the press, NetJets CEO David Sokol said, "This difficult decision resulted from a comprehensive analysis of current and projected flight demand. As we move forward, we will continue to adjust our operations to meet customers’ needs and act in a fiscally responsible manner."

Union leader Capt. Luthi says that the NJASP "remains willing to engage in mutually beneficial talks intended to hasten our pilots' return to the flight line."

NetJets flight attendant sues Jennifer Lopez over dog bite, injuries

A former NetJets flight attendant filed suit in New York late last week against Jennifer Lopez and her company, Nuyorican Productions, Inc., alleging that a dog belonging to the actress attacked her during a flight between Farmingdale, NY and Burbank, CA on July, 3, 2006. The flight attendant says that the dog, a German shepherd named Floyd, lunged at her as she passed by in the passenger cabin of the Gulfstream IV, and bit her pant leg. When the flight attendant twisted to get away from the dog, she fell, injuring her back.

According to documents filed in court, the flight attendant began treatment for back pain within days of the incident, but was unable to achieve relief from her pain. As a result of the injuries, the flight attendant had to have major surgery on her back in April of 2007, and she continues to undergo treatment.

The lawsuit alleges that the flight attendant's injuries are permanent and will require additional treatment. She has been unable to return to work. She is seeking $5 million in compensation. The flight attendant's attorney was quoted in a number of news reports such as this one in the New York Daily News, saying she is not out to capitalize on J. Lo's celebrity, and had made attempts to settle the case that were ignored. NetJets is not named in the suit.

Predictably, this story quickly went viral, spreading like wildfire around the Internet, especially on celebrity gossip websites. Once that happens, stories begin to mutate and become sensationalized, like an earlier story about Jennifer Lopez and a flight attendant that I wrote about  nearly two years ago.

If you are interested in the details of this incident, I suggest that you read the actual court documents (8-page 'pdf' file), posted to the Internet by TMZ.com, and that you take many of the accounts in the entertainment media with a grain of salt.

My sympathies are with the injured flight attendant.

NetJets pilots' contract amended and extended

NetJets Aviation (NJA) announced that its pilots, represented by Teamsters Local 1108, had approved a major amendment and extension to their collective bargaining agreement last month. The agreement was reached after six months of negotiations.

A press release issued by the company said that 75.7% of NJA's more than 2,600 pilots had voted in favor of the agreement. Over 95% of the pilots had participated in the referendum.

The press release did not include details of the terms of the agreement, however an article about the amended NetJets contract in Aviation International News (AIN) noted that major provisions of the agreement included increasing the number of crew bases, more schedule options and pay increases.

Here are some details about the pay packages, reported by AIN:

NetJets first officers benefit greatly from the new agreement, with first-year pay climbing from $39,000 to $56,875 a year under the seven-days-on/seven-days-off schedule. This eclipses the previous industry-leading annual salary for new-hire first officers of $40,000 at CitationShares. Lowest on the scale are Flight Options first officers, who earn an average salary of $33,996 per year.

While the first officers got sizeable pay increases, NetJets’ captains fared well too. First-year captain salaries increased from $52,500 to $87,500, a significant step beyond the previous high of $64,000 at CitationShares. Flight Options occupies the lowest end of the scale, with captains starting at $51,996 a year.

Under the new payscale, NetJets first officers top out at $81,081 after year 10. Five-year captains will earn six figures under the new deal.

The agreement, which was signed by both NJA and the pilots union last month, will become amendable in five and a half years, but can be extended for another three years should NetJets meet certain parameters. AIN reports that these include "giving NJA 85 percent of all international flying, maintaining the same level of health care at no cost to pilots, opening 10 additional crew bases and adding cost-of-living adjustments to pay tables each year of the extension."

NetJets Falcon 2000 windshield implodes at FL410

The crew of a certain Dassault Falcon 2000 must have had one heck of a scare last week. The aircraft, operated by NetJets, Inc., was cruising at FL410 en route from Las Vegas to Bedford, MA on the afternoon of July 26 when -- in the words of the FAA's preliminary incident report -- the "first officer's window imploded." Yikes!

The aircraft immediately descended and diverted to Syracuse Hancock, where it landed without further incident. Must have been quite a dramatic descent!

The FAA preliminary report mentions that no one was injured. No word on the status of the pilots' underlinens...

NetJets Gulfstream skids off taxiway at HPN

A Gulfstream 200 Galaxy with six passengers and two crew on board skidded off a taxiway at Westchester County Airport (HPN) this morning. No one was injured.

The aircraft, operated by NetJets, had just arrived from Bermuda, according to an article about the mishap on the Journal News website. Airport manager Peter Scherer told the Journal News that the aircraft had made a safe landing, but then the pilot "missed a turn and slipped off the taxiway."

"He was taxiing over to customs and the tower asked him to expedite his taxiing," Scherer said. "He must have gotten a little disoriented and missed the turn. He slid a little too far and got stuck in the mud."

The weather was poor at HPN at the time of the incident, due to the same winter storm that disrupted commercial air travel all over the northeastern United States.

The airport suspended flights after the 9:48 a.m. incident, and reopened the runway to arrivals and departures at 1:25 p.m. Airlines had already canceled hundred of flights at New York area airports because of bad weather.

To free the stuck aircraft, two tow truck operators, using two different vehicles, wrapped straps around the aircraft's wheels and then gingerly hauled it out of the mud. Airplanes cannot back up, and their wheels have no traction, so the aircraft could not free itself, Scherer explained. It was a delicate operation because they did not want to damage the aircraft.

The flight information page on the Westchester County Airport website was showing dozens of commercial flight cancellations throughout the day.

Growing pains for fractionals

A Business Week article, republished on the Business Travel section of the MSNBC website, suggests that fractional jet operators may be experiencing substantial 'growing pains' due to unforeseen costs arising out of rapid expansion.

Apparently the costs of acquiring and operating so many aircraft have resulted in driving expenses up so high that, despite brisk demand, "the companies operating these services, including NetJets, Bombardier Flexjet, and Flight Options, have collectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years." As a result, the 'frax' have had to resort to tactics such as discounting their rates in order to attract new customers, and offering their existing customers incentives to travel at off-peak times.

The article, titled "One jet, 16 owners, big problems," notes that the fractional jet business is a $6 billion industry, and that more than 5,000 individuals and businesses now own fractional interests in private jets, compared to 730 in 1997. So why can't they turn a profit?

Here's an excerpt from the article that explains some of the problems:

...For one thing, providing a ready, waiting jet for a multitude of customers--many jets are now sold in increments as small as 1/16th--is more complicated than it may appear. Experts estimate that more than 25% of an average plane's air time is spent flying empty to pick up the customer. And because many people travel at the same peak times--the day before major holidays, or Monday mornings--operators have too often been forced to turn to the costly charter market just to meet their contractual demands. NetJets Inc., for instance, estimates it spent $200 million chartering extra jets in 2005, though it says it cut its charter outlays to less than $100 million last year.

Analysts add that a good portion of the existing stock of business jets, such as the Hawker 1000 and Cessna Citation Ultra, were built for corporate users who flew them less than 300 hours a year, not for the roughly 1,100 hours that most fractional operators wring out of an average plane. The unfortunate result: chronic maintenance and excessive downtime. "A lot of these light business jets were not designed to be flown like a commercial airplane," says Mike Riegel, a former Flexjet executive who now advises fliers purchasing fractional stakes. And experts say that private jet operators, in their quest to gain market share, were way too aggressive with their own jet acquisitions, which in turn forced them to discount their rates to lure customers. "The fractional players have been just like the commercial airlines--they've been pricing just to fill seats," says Richard L. Aboulafia, vice-president at Teal Group Corp., an aerospace consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va.

Some of the frax are now looking to acquire more fuel-efficient aircraft in order to cut operating costs in the long run.

The article saves the best quote for last: "The best thing that could happen to this industry is consolidation--taking out a couple of the lesser players who just hold down prices," says David Strauss, an aerospace analyst with UBS.

That statement has such a familiar ring... Where have we heard that before? Are the frax just like the airlines after all?

NetJets orders another 48 Hawkers

Hawker pilots take note: Fractional operator NetJets, Inc. has just ordered 30 Hawker 750, and 18 Hawker 900XP jets from the Raytheon Aircraft Co. This is in addition to the 48 Hawkers ordered by NetJets in October. From an article about the transaction on the Business First of Columbus website:

"This order for 48 additional Hawker aircraft will help NetJets meet its increased demand for private aviation solutions in Europe and the U.S.," said Richard Santulli, NetJets chairman, in a news release.

The article goes on to say:

Deliveries on the Hawker 900XPs will start this year and continue through 2012, Raytheon said. Deliveries on the Hawker 750s will start in 2008 and continue through 2009 on the initial order and start in 2010 and continue through 2011 on the follow-up order.

Keep those delivery dates in mind if you're looking for a job flying a Hawker.

Here's the Pilot Careers page on the NetJets website, just for reference. Tip: It says on the website that they're accepting pilot applications for Citation, Hawker, Falcon, Gulfstream, and Boeing aircraft.