I'm a lead mechanic at Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services, Inc. (EAMS) in Nashville. It was announced officially, yesterday (although I'd heard through the grapevine night before last), that Republic has pulled 3 of the 5 heavy maintenance lines they had with us. These were B5 checks that take about a month. Embraer 170 commuter airliners (70 seats). CommutAir has also announced that they won't be bringing any more planes in after the one E-145 we're working is finished.
With the sharp dropoff in demand for air travel, the airlines' revenue stream has experienced a steep decline, to say the least. And, without revenue coming in, it's hard for them to justify keeping airplanes in service and paying us millions to do these checks. So they're parking a bunch of jets.
This leaves us with 2 SkyWest lines that are doing B1 and B2 checks (I work on those lines), and the 2 remaining Republic lines. But no one knows if we'll be able to keep those lines. Things seems to be changing hourly.
I'm hoping for the best, but trying to prepare myself for the worst. This is the worst event that has happened since I got my A&P and got into this field in 2012. I guess the last event of this magnitude for the airline industry was 9/11.
As of yesterday, no layoffs are planned. But, as I said, that could change at ANY time. Contractors would be the first to go. In the almost 7 years I've been with EAMS, there's only been one layoff event, and that was in 2014. Basically they picked the people who had lots of tardies, poor attendance, or just sucked for whatever reason, and got rid of them. So, for the time being, the other lines will absorb the guys from the lines that are being closed down. We'll have night shifts for some lines that didn't have night shifts before, etc. I'll get a few guys on my crew, which will be good in some ways. But, having that many guys on our line, we also might get the checks done so quickly that SkyWest might have trouble getting us replacement jets for a few days, meaning we won't have anything to do (in the industry, it's called, "working yourself out of a job").
Everything is fluid right now.
Other guys in aviation - how are y'all being affected? Hopefully no one's lost their job.
With the sharp dropoff in demand for air travel, the airlines' revenue stream has experienced a steep decline, to say the least. And, without revenue coming in, it's hard for them to justify keeping airplanes in service and paying us millions to do these checks. So they're parking a bunch of jets.
This leaves us with 2 SkyWest lines that are doing B1 and B2 checks (I work on those lines), and the 2 remaining Republic lines. But no one knows if we'll be able to keep those lines. Things seems to be changing hourly.
I'm hoping for the best, but trying to prepare myself for the worst. This is the worst event that has happened since I got my A&P and got into this field in 2012. I guess the last event of this magnitude for the airline industry was 9/11.
As of yesterday, no layoffs are planned. But, as I said, that could change at ANY time. Contractors would be the first to go. In the almost 7 years I've been with EAMS, there's only been one layoff event, and that was in 2014. Basically they picked the people who had lots of tardies, poor attendance, or just sucked for whatever reason, and got rid of them. So, for the time being, the other lines will absorb the guys from the lines that are being closed down. We'll have night shifts for some lines that didn't have night shifts before, etc. I'll get a few guys on my crew, which will be good in some ways. But, having that many guys on our line, we also might get the checks done so quickly that SkyWest might have trouble getting us replacement jets for a few days, meaning we won't have anything to do (in the industry, it's called, "working yourself out of a job").
Everything is fluid right now.
Other guys in aviation - how are y'all being affected? Hopefully no one's lost their job.