I was just in Detroit (DTW) yesterday and heard from the fuelers at the FBO that the Ford and GM flight departments have been shut down.
They said that a group of security guards showed up and escorted all of the pilots, mechanics, dispatchers and office staff from the hangars and sent them home. They are now all locked up and dark.
Ford had 5 airplanes...all are for sale. 17 pilots laid off. GM is selling 4 or 5 of 7 aircraft, closing the department - 64 employees of which 32 are pilots are on the street. I've also heard that Citygroup and Lucent technologies are dumping airplanes as well. I've started noticing some low time (< 500 hr) canadian bizjets listed for sale recently, can't help but wonder if we are going to see a lot of the same crap in the canadian corporate arena. I am certainly glad I fly for a gentleman who doesn't have to justify his aircraft to anybody but himself.
unfortunately, (i know you guys know this, but it needs to be said) it's all political. most of the general public doesn't understand that private jets are anything but a luxury. They don't understand that they can be a very cost effective business tool.
Pragmatism will never rule the day as long as the status quo persists in the elected bodies in the US. And that filters down to the every day joe (dare i say "plumber").
Your are quite right. I personally chringe every time I hear" and they arrived in their private jets". An aircraft is a tool like a fleet of cars/trucks/cell phones/blackburys and the like. I was involved in such a situation many years ago with the sudden closure of a flight department, we were told the aircraft was indeed a valuable mode of efficient and cost/effective transportation but it was the perception of using(in our case a turboprop) during difficult restructuring times. Funny thing though, I ran into one of the financial types a few years later on and was told the money spent on transportation after the a/c was sold, doubled due airline costs/delays/schedules and the like.
xsbank wrote:I can't see how they can survive without their a/c - this might just be optics to get the loans, then they will re-hire?
once they are not in the news anymore they I am sure they will. Nothing more than a PR move.
One word: NETJETS!
Closing flight departments doesn't necessarily mean no more corporate airplanes. Using Netjets (or the likes) keep them in the air, but out of sight from all the politics.
Still very unfortunate for the folks out of a job before Xmas.
funny thing is with the value of bizjets suddenly depressed, selling them now actually means taking a hit on the sale value....wait a year or 2, value will rebound a couple mill or more per aircraft...especially the bigger ones like the challengers/globals/gulfstreams/falcons.
