Money is Gone: Airlines Start Layoffs Soon

Inflation has impacted a lot of what we buy and now that most the stimulus money has moved through the system we are facing higher costs and that is going to have an impact on the airlines. This is NOT financial advice.

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[robertintexas]

I'm a 38 year employee of UPS (retired, not a pilot). The issue is The CEO, Carol Tome. Her hiring was the first instance of hiring a CEO at UPS that wasn't promoted from within the company. UPS has been around since 1907. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. She came from Home Depot where She did the exact same thing. She is there strictly for the stockholders, not for the employees or customers. For well over 100 years, UPS never had a layoff, except temps during peak season. For 90 years, UPS was an employee owned company. UPS paid cash for everything they bought. Their stock went public in 1997, and the company has gone downhill, IMO, ever since.

[diytwoincollege]

I own a small retail store. There are several reasons I see for less shipping:
1. Less products have been available.
2. UPS jacked up their rates and USPS is cheaper to ship to many locations
3. People are spending more money on basics and have less free cash

[jckdnls]

Something doesn't add up, it's always we can't afford the workers, but it's never we can't afford to pay our ceos or board members or investors.

[jackfromthes]

I "took the package" during COVID at age 55 when my company mothballed the fleet I was on. It was the best move I ever made. I didn't realise how much longhaul flying was screwing with my body until I stopped.

[EsotericFleetMechanic]

Cost of food has gone up so much. Oil and filters for the cars we drive has gone up. As a fleet mechanic, I've also seen the price of brake pads go from $32 a set to to $149 a set!

[normp]

I've worked at FedEx Express for over 20 years as a truck driver. I can tell you this video by Kelsey is not an exaggeration. FedEx right now is in the middle of a restructure because revenue and profits are down. They're taking the measures that Kelsey outlined here with buyouts and early retirements for the more senior people, including pilots. Definitely a time of uncertainty

[sambolino]

Interesting to see your definition of "staycation." For most of my life, piling into the car and staying with relatives was a VACATION. A staycation was just staying at home and spending as little money as possible. Getting on a plane, flying to some exotic location, and staying in a hotel was something people on TV did.

[jordanwaddell]

Im an auditor and this is the best and easiest to understand financial breakdown done by a non financial channel I have ever seen. Kudos to you!

[AstronomyGarage]

I tried to ship a package from Texas to Ohio on Friday via UPS. It only weighed 9 pounds, but was a bit on the long side (15x15x48 inches). They wanted $155 for the slowest ground shipping method. So I cancelled the pickup. A relative of mine is planning to drive down next year and will take it back with them then.

[ScrillaTMU]

My airline said it took a loss in Q3 but I swear, that was the busiest quarter I ever remember working. It’s crazy how the airline is saying we took a lose. How if we’ve never been more busy. I’m speaking on American Airlines

[kayelle]

Thank you for saying that about the arm rests. I typically fly in the aisle seat and think it’s just common courtesy to give one of my arm rests to the middle seat passenger as they have the worst seat in the row and I’m still left with one. On the rare occasions I’ve been in the middle I’ve been shocked how uncommon, common courtesy is when flying.

[greglevy]

It’s not just lack of extra money it’s also the rise of fuel and ground support costs which is also driving up costs and bringing down profits

[mmason]

I work for UPS Air at a gateway in Missouri. We’ve seen a huge drop off in volume the last few months. Used to get a full Airbus A300 everyday. Now we’ve just been moving volume out of a 757.

[HK-ox]

Keep in mind, the majors will hire pilots right up to the day they furlough them. That said, passenger flying is still going very strong with a heap of retirements in the next 5-7 years so furloughs in the passenger world is probably a lot less likely, maybe just a slow down in hiring. Add to that, the majors love carrying cargo where they can to supplement their passenger income. US-Australia in particular is often payload optomized purely so they can carry more cargo.

[ClutchTrucker]

I’m a truck driver. And we’ve been feeling the downward turn in cargo in the last year or two. Interesting to see how it’s affecting you as a cargo pilot. Welcome to our world! Live the videos. Take care. Clutch Trucker

[USS_Sentinel]

I'm not a pilot, but this right here is why NO company gets my loyalty. If I'm just a number in a spreadsheet somewhere, I'm going to give the company the exact same treatment.

[stephen]

UPS shipping rates have gotten pretty crazy. I used to buy and sell guitars online - but shipping costs have increased to the point that it is no longer feasible to sell online. And shipping holiday gifts from one coast to the other is now $75+ for a box! So if I shop on Amazon and ship direct, free shipping, instead of buying locally and shipping a box cross country, my dollar can go a lot further - which is important bc prices on everything have gone up in the last few years, but my salary has not changed.

[ekaftan]

A long time ago, when it was a thing, I was in the cockpit of a 767 as a jump seat passenger because I was both an employee of the airline and a friend of the captain, on a flight that had at most 80 passengers...

Captain shows me the planes weight... it was 1000lbs short of of its max takeoff weight. We were a cargo plane with some passengers.

[FamilyManMoving]

Factors not covered in this video: Amazon Air has an annual cubic cargo volume that is about 1/4 the size of UPS worldwide, and growing; they set the goal years ago to scale back UPS/FEDEX use because of rising costs. Amazon has a contract with Atlas Air (among others) for cargo at better rates than UPS. All shippers are contracting more cargo to second and third-tier airlines, including regionals (Hawaiin, Silver, etc but not the big airlines whose costs are too high due to labor). UPS cannot compete with non-unionized airlines (or at least those with lower unionized labor cost). Added to this, the annual imports of product from China dropped 16.4% in 2023, and is going to recover...many years from now, if ever (that issue is due to Chinese economics, not the global economy). Oh, and the USPS is shipping cargo at a loss, in a desperate move to stay relevant past 2024.

Point is: UPS and FEDEX are being squeezed by lowered international trade volume (mainly from China), and increasing labor costs. Domestic transport is more competitive, with even the US gov't willing to take a loss to beat UPS. UPS's prime customer built their own airline for the specific purpose of scaling back UPS/FEDEX. It's all working to squeeze them hard. It will probably get much worse.

I'm not happy that UPS people are also going to get squeezed. Just pointing out the data, good and bad.

[Goosen]

As someone who works for UPS this is very accurate even down to non drivers … hours getting cut hiring more people to work less I’ve seen more supervisors quit because hourly’s are making as much or more then supervisors it’s crazy and sad this economy has been broken on so many levels it’s hard to keep track of it all !