Commercial aviation industry analyst, Michael Boyd, penned a fantastic article in his April 30^th edition of the “Monday Hot Flash.” He arrived at the same conclusions we did in our February 2012 entry on the OPERATION ORANGE website entitled, “Our Future: If We Choose To Allow It.”

The government and industry are racing toward this “brand virtualization” concept, and the pilot associations are entranced by the metamorphosis. We hope to change the trajectory of this feature of pilot recruitment for purposes of protecting the traveling public against dangerous trends in outsourcing and the annoying deterioration of passenger service. Boyd correctly calls-out the revolving door of low-skilled and low-paid employees, which logically result in low levels of passenger service and operational safety. It seems that the airline support personnel will have to choose between a career in aviation, or one preparing fast food, washing windows, collecting tolls, or grooming pets.

If we don’t act in our own best interests, piloting will succumb to the same fate. This is the model airline management has for pilots, and they have paid off the government to those ends.

We invite you to read Boyd’s article and also encourage you to read his other works. His analysis is far superior to the self-serving bilge offered by Wall Street and other incarnations of the “conventional wisdom.”

(To read Boyd’s article on Boyd Group International’s website, click HERE)

(To read Boyd’s article in PDF, click HERE)

Dealing With The Virtual Airline

By: Michael Boyd, Monday, April 30, 2012

© Boyd Group International, republished by OPERATION ORANGE with permission.  All rights reserved by Boyd Group International, www.aviationplanning.com

It happened in the petroleum industry. It’s happening in the airline business. Or, more accurately, it’s already happened in the airline business. Brand virtualization.

Today, you go to the gas station and pump a brand of gas in to the tank of your SUV. But where that unleaded came from, how it was produced, who produced it, who moved it and who put it into the filling station storage tank, are all different companies, and they can change month to month, and even gas station to gas station across town. The only thing that’s the same is that the sign at the station says “Conoco” or “Shell.”

Twenty years ago, oil companies were involved from the wellhead to the gas pump. Today, it’s different vendors and suppliers for every part of the logistics stream. It’s all been farmed out to independent surrogates.

Tumble to this: that’s exactly what’s happened in the US airline industry over the last 15 years. Today, it’s not only possible, but probable Continue reading →

 Air Canada Pilots are Seeing ORANGE

OPERATION ORANGE has touched nerves outside the confines of the United States. In fact, it is safe to say that wherever there is collusion between government and airline executives, for purposes of gutting pilot livelihoods and looting the wealth of the air transportation infrastructure, OPERATION ORANGE finds fertile ground to plant seeds for a glorious harvest.

All pilots in the US should pay attention to what is happening north of our border, because our brethren in Canada are experiencing what we are experiencing. In fact, the details of our struggle and theirs, are too similar to disregard as anything but coordination.

We made note of how QANTAS, the Australian national airline, is being systematically looted in the same manner airlines in the US have been destroyed. In the case of QANTAS, the matter has been brought to the floor of their parliament, by Senator Xenophon. We published his remarks a few weeks ago.

OPERATION ORANGE has been in contact with pilots at Air Canada and they are in the crucible of war, when it comes to their attempts to gain appropriate working conditions for their labors. It is what American Airlines pilots are now facing, and what United Continue reading →

Send this video to every pilot you know. Post this on your FACEBOOK page.

More videos will follow in the next few weeks.

The Failure of the Railway Labor Act

(To read this posting in PDF, click HERE)

120 years ago, the rail industry was linking American cities and promoting American commerce. This vital national resource was necessary for the growing, post-war nation to become the economic titan of the 20^th Century.

Things were not smooth on the railway labor front. Burdened with high fixed costs, rail management frequently changed the pay and working conditions of its employees, prompting wildcat strikes. Armed troops were often summoned to quell labor unrest and put down violence.

It didn’t take much in the way of prescience to understand this feature of labor relations was at odds with the growing industrial needs of a rising nation, so Congress passed a series of laws aimed at streamlining labor unrest. Most were considered failures until Continue reading →

BASIC STRATEGY:  THE WAY WE SEE IT

(To read this post in its entirety (PDF), CLICK HERE)

There are essentially four types of pilots as it relates to implementing a nation-wide “sit down” protest of the current regulatory paradigm.

TYPE 1- Pilots who want to do an SOS right nowand are not squeamish in the slightest bit about doing it. These pilots are the most important part of this effort, because they are the sharp tip of the spear. They are the ones with the energy needed to get the word out to their peers and they are the ones who see the vision for the future of our profession. They know that nothing comes without standing up for yourself. They know that managing is the process of “what is,” and that leadership is the substance of “what can be.” They are the leaders.

The challenge is to convince them that there are a few bricks that have to be set prior to the SOS and that their enthusiasm needs to be channeled into setting those bricks.

TYPE 2- Pilots who want to do an SOS, but Continue reading →

The “One Level Of Safety” Charade: It Isn’t Just Pilots

 With all the clamor over the issue of pilot fatigue, resulting from the Colgan 3407 crash, the FAA and industry were able to divert attention away from the consequences of hiring the cheapest pilots they could find. PBS FRONTLINE produced a wholly accurate depiction of the consequences and conditions of the emerging “lift-contracting” model being pushed by the major airlines. In “Flying Cheap,” PBS FRONTLINE and Miles O’Brien uncover the dark truth: there is not a uniform level of safety in the piloting profession, despite the industry and FAA telling us there is.

The facts don’t lie – that’s what executives are for.

“One level of safety” exists only in the rhetoric, and everyone in the FAA, airline management, and skilled airline employee ranks knows it.

The statistical anomaly in the US airline safety record of the past 15 years, along with declining ticket prices (subsidized by forced pilot concessions), has mollified the traveling public. This has prevented the FAA, Congress, and airline executives from being forced to answer uncomfortable questions about the structure of the United States air transportation system. Colgan Air 3407 and US Airways 1549, less than a month apart, provided a glorious opportunity to finally address the underlying rot within the system, but those sounding the alarm Continue reading →

Revenue Shifting: The Airline Version of the “Shell Game.”

Does anyone find it curious that whenever an airline finds itself in contract negotiations with its airline pilot union, the airline’s revenues drop, while at the same time, and in the same economy, the revenues for airlines with pilots under contract are rising?

In the old, pre-deregulation era, airlines were allowed to assist one another to help offset the power of pilot unions. Whenever an airline was struck, the other airlines would help out with revenues, to keep bondholders at bay, knowing that the favor would be returned when their pilots struck. That was made illegal as part of airline deregulation of the 1970s.

It is for this reason that Lorenzo never had joint meetings with his bondholders and his employee unions. He had to disguise where the money was to extract concessions. It is exceedingly difficult to tell one group of people that you have no money while at the same time telling another group of people Continue reading →

The NTSB published its report on the Continental Connection / Colgan Air 3407 crash.  This event, and the NTSB report that followed, has served as the pretext for the overhaul of the flight time and duty time limitations by the FAA.

The question that we are asking is, “Did the FAA/NTSB address the correct problem, or are they deflecting blame away from the real issue?”

We have developed a 50 question quiz that explores this issue.  All the facts come directly from the NTSB report.  The “conventional wisdom” does not match the facts.

Please read the report and take the quiz.  Each question is answered with a discussion full discussion of the issue.

You may find the NTSB report HERE.

You may find the quiz and discussion HERE.

 Fly safe.

…and we are not talking about American Airlines.

(For a PDF version of this post, click HERE)

Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, recently penned a letter to his “warriors” at the “maverick” Southwest Airlines. It started out as a review of the dysfunction and resultant bankruptcy at his cross-town rival, American Airlines. The letter degenerated into a sales pitch on how Southwest employees, particularly pilots, need to trim costs and bump up productivity, lest they meet the same fate as employees at American Airlines.

This is clearly a shot across the bow of the pilots of Southwest Airlines, however due to the tradition of trustworthy management, many employees may not see this for what it is. A Southwest Airlines pilot has never had to watch his back, but that appears to be changing.

We have reposted many of the paragraphs in Kelly’s letter and have commented on what he wrote. We believe Kelly’s letter is a very ominous sign for pilots everywhere, especially at Southwest. It shores up our belief that the American Airlines bankruptcy isn’t the last chapter in the ATA’s war on employees Continue reading →

Injunction Junction, What‘s Your Function?

A review of the US Airways Injunction

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

     -various attributions.

For a PDF of this posting, click HERE.

The latest casualty of airline pilot unions running into traps set by the management-government axis is USAPA.  We can’t fault pilots for trying to remedy their seemingly hopeless situation by whatever means appear to be available to them; we only question their tactics.  Their hearts are in the right place, but their minds have not caught up to 21st Century labor relations.

OPERATION ORANGE is trying to fix that.

As we all know by now, a federal judge has agreed with just about every complaint lodged by US Airways management against the union representing the “East” pilots in its operations.  This should come as a shock to absolutely nobody who has been paying attention since Continue reading →

Do You Have Your Twenty?

We have completed the first phase of getting the word out.  The next thing we need to do is for each person who reads this to recruit twenty pilots into the cause.

Twenty, each.

That is all we need.  It is not that hard.

If we each get twenty pilots to agree to the concepts of OPERATION ORANGE, we will have more than enough to create a catastrophic shutdown during the nationwide Suspension of Service/Protest.  Our FACEBOOK “likes,” alone, multiplied by twenty is enough to carryout the scenario outlined in the “BASIC STRATEGY” document we posted several months ago.  We know that our following is much larger than what FACEBOOK shows, as the demographic of FACEBOOK does not share significant overlap with the 38-55 year old male demographic.

How long would it take to “get your twenty?”  If you recruited ONE pilot per workday, Continue reading →

Secure Communications During the End Game

How can one small committee communicate securely, across an unsecured medium, monitored by a hostile adversary with almost unlimited resources,  with as many pilots who care to engage?  How can the thousands of pilots know that the message communicated on an unsecured network has not been forged?

It would be easy enough for the airlines, or their enforcers in various government agencies, to simply trespass (hack) the internet domain playing host to the communications of OPERATION ORANGE, and disrupt the entire effort.  They could entice sympathetic media to broadcast contrary messages, claiming they were authentic, and send OPERATION ORANGE into chaos.  It certainly would take little effort to hire people, claiming to be members of The Committee, in order to confuse everyone and disrupt the operation.

To keep everything moving in our favor, we need to overcome a few obstacles, and the bulk of these obstacles can be overcome by using public key cryptography…

(To read this post in its entirety, click HERE)

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.“

-United States Constitution, First Amendment, 1791.

This is the supreme law of the land and it is well into its third century of governing political discourse, rallies, and lobbying throughout the United States. Contrary to the understanding of most in the air transportation industry, there is no exception for airline pilots. If you take the time to read the First Amendment closely, you will not find any reference to how airline pilots must have their political activities muzzled at the behest of a law passed 85 years ago.

In fact, there are no provisions to muzzle the political speech, press, assembly, or petitioning of the government of anyone involved in high profile occupations

The Railway Labor Act is not our UCMJ. It never has been, nor will it ever be; we believe it is time we quit acting as if it were. We are citizens with full enjoyment of the First Amendment, just as any civil rights Continue reading →

In 2007, when the career seemed to be at its darkest hour, the government and ALPA stepped in and rubbed salt in the wound. Age 65 was forced upon us. Not only did the lower half of the seniority list have to digest a massive and unprecedented retrenchment in career expectations and working conditions, our union and government ensured we would do so for another five years.

Cockpits across the industry are bitterly divided over the issue. Elderly captains believe this is their way of getting back part of what was stolen from them during the looting of the industry. First Officers believe that restitution is coming entirely at their expense.

How can that be reconciled? Is it possible?

We believe it can.

We believe it is possible to turn Age 65 into something positive for everyone, but it will take character, strength, maturity, and forgiveness to do it. Here is how:

Continue reading →

“What is in it for me?” Why should I support or oppose OPERATION ORANGE’s “Fair Treatment of Experienced Pilots Act – Part 2?”

Almost all legislation has “winners” and “losers,” and this is no exception. The general rule of thumb is that the “winners” are those who have contributed mightily to Congressional campaigns to see the legislation to completion, and the “losers” are those that kept their checkbooks closed. This legislation is different in the sense there is no money going to Washington as lubricant.

The lubricant is our labor.

Generally, the “winners” under the FTOEPA2 will be those who have been the “losers” over the past 30 years, and the “losers” will be those that used the last 30 years to loot the industry.

Here is how we see all the players and how they stand to benefit: Continue reading →

You can read the original NY Times editorial here.

THIRTY years ago this fall, Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Since then, America’s airline system has greatly deteriorated.

Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality and international reputation. Fewer and fewer flights are on time. Airport congestion has become a staple of late-night comedy shows. An ever higher percentage of bags are lost or sent to the wrong airports. Last-minute seats are harder and harder to find. Passenger complaints have skyrocketed. Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable. Continue reading →

http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/02/10/do-sleepy-pilots-threaten-air-safety/

by Fran Golden

Two years after a fatal commuter jet crash in Buffalo that was blamed in part on sleepy pilots, pilot fatigue continues to be widespread, experts say.

Having a place to sleep may be part of the problem. An ABC News report shows undercover video of pilots trying to catch up on sleep in airport “crash pad” units and crew lounges.

Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a fatigue expert, says it’s hard for pilots to sleep in the kind of crew spaces they are provided.

Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General of the Department of Transportation, says of the sleeping accommodations, “It’s actually a creative response to a ridiculous situation.”

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, famous for his Hudson River landing of a stricken US Airways jet, tells ABC the landing probably wouldn’t have happened Continue reading →

The regional airline industry says safety is its top priority, in part because accidents are bad for business. But pilot unions and the families of air crash victims say safety has been sacrificed to cost-cutting at some carriers.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it holds all airlines, large and small, to the same standards. But a coalition representing corporate travel managers says business travelers don’t believe regional carriers are as safe as larger airlines, and many travelers don’t want to fly them.

Those were some of the sometimes contradictory messages presented at a two-day National Transportation Safety Board forum that began Tuesday. The board is examining the safety implications of “code-sharing” agreements that allow major carriers Continue reading →

OPERATIION ORANGE now has its own page on Facebook.  We have linked to it on the sidebar of this blog.

Pass the link to your pilot friends on FACEBOOK.  All commentary should be directed to FACEBOOK.

PGP Corporation has been recently purchased by Symantec Corporation.  This
does not present a problem  with the PGP software, keys, or any feature
needed for the implementation of the SOS.  However, Symantec Corporation
will be changing the links to the various PGP versions they offer, and as
such, The Committee cannot keep up with their changes in real time.

We will endeavor to keep the link to the PGP Trial Version as updated as
possible, but the possibility exists that any PGP links we post may fall
dead.

To get the PGP Trial version, Continue reading →