Quote:
Originally Posted by sentinel
^^Indeed. However, I believe that news like this is trying to send a message to the City, specifically, about how AA and UA now want out of O'Hare's Global Hub partnership. Essentially 'move forward with the project and it's higher-than-expected-cost, and we leave Chicago.' It's not hard to connect the dots.
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Yep. One of my best friends is a pilot for UAL (not based in Chicago - never has been).
#5
1) He said he's known about an expansion to DIA for a good 6-8 months now.
2) He said it was never presented as a HQ move, but rather an expansion. But he also said yes there's rumors among people who wouldn't know about HQ move. The CEO went to Air Force so it wouldn't 100% surprise him but he wouldn't think it would be a lot of people if it did actually happen.
3) He thinks it's a political move to get a tax break and other things. He was a pilot for JetBlue before UAL and said they pulled the same thing threatening to move out of NYC and voila, tax break.
4) He said UAL has no issues moving crew members out of places but he said that if they forced upper management to move from Chicago "they'd all quit." BTW he said they just moved 400 crew members (pilots etc) out of Newark because of the wars overseas and they're all pissed off about it.
5) Moving that many people cost wise is astronomical We're talking about tens of millions of dollars from a direct cost standpoint. Indirect costs are even greater. I know from personal experience (my own corporate moves plus moving others thru corporate) how much this costs. A lot of people simply would not uproot their lives. The logistics of doing this is uber complex and would take years. A lot of people have spouses with their own careers too, kids, etc and would not move. The easiest people to move are single people without kids - typically that's who I've moved myself to Chicago as it's easy. Anyone with a family - forget about it unless they're an upper level exec. And even then, many times they don't move. You can look at Oracle as an example. They announced they were moving to Austin over 3 years ago and almost nobody on their executive leadership (C-Suite, SVPs etc) is in Austin. They're all still in the Bay Area. Many execs for Caterpillar are still in the Chicago area. Most of the ones in Texas were hired in a few years ago and already living there. Some have never left Peoria and a few moved directly from Peoria because they never even moved to the Chicago area.
6) Chicago is still a big hub and regardless of where a HQ is, it takes thousands to operate that big of a hub. Delta for example employs nearly 9000 people in NYC area from what I know.
7) UAL hired 3800 people in Chicago in 2023. Don't forget that.
8) UAL said themselves it's hypothetical and for potential future expansion. UAL has made public they are expanding a lot again. They wanted to hire 15,000 people by year end (2023). I know in Houston they're planning to hire 1500 people this year alone.
9) Going off of #5, he told me all relos are paid for by corporate and cost at minimum $20K per person. This is in line with my experiences and the costs are much higher if you are trying to move a homeowner.
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