JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX has shut down its aviation department, which flew corporate jets to whisk railroad executives around the system and elsewhere.
The department, which had been in operation for 84 years and employed pilots and mechanics, was disbanded on Dec. 1, the railroad confirmed.
A spokesman declined to release any details about the move, which comes a little more than two months since new CEO Steve Angel joined the company.
Earlier this month railroad executives said they expected fourth-quarter financial results to be negatively affected by lower than expected coal and automotive shipments.
Recall back in the days when CSXT was being defined between SBD & Chessie that SBD felt is was better for their executives to spend ten hours in a motor vehicle on I-95 when moving between Richmond and Jacksonville than a couple of hours or less flying between the points. Pennywise and dollar foolish.
Maybe there needs to be less senior execs flying around for look sees and more focus on locally located division management to take care of business. what exactly does these guys do that they need to fly so often as to have a fleet of jets on standby? Just asking? What am I missing?
Because a hedge fund (Ancona) controls the board. Joe Hinrichs got fired because he did not “actively pursue” a merger. By strange conicidence (HA!) this occured riight after the NS+UP merger was announced. And the new guy is a Harrison disciple. Read the tea leaves. Ancona undoubtedly loaded up on CSX stock when the rumors began flying, and when BNSF said “no merger in our plans”, Ancona bailed and threw out Joe as punishment. As always, greed rules.
Berkshire Hathaway owns NetJets. They also own BNSF…….
The biggest advantage to your own planes is that they can be ready to go on short notice and you have control over the security. With fractionals it’s usually around a 2 hr. notice, but weather and crew availability can throw that off if they have to reposition a plane. Plus usually using airport fixed base operator terminals, so a little less private or secure. Charters can be a crapshoot, you should vet who you’re using, and sometimes if you’re not near a popular location it can take awhile to line-up a plane, crew, and reposition.
Here we go again, the hedge fund vultures stepping in and cutting costs with a meat axe. More of this and no one in their right mind would want to merge with them.
What leads you to believe it is hedge funds — and not just general mutual funds — behind that?
If I were a business, no matter how big, no matter how global, I’d buy aviation service from an aviation company.
Hmmm…does this mean they’re just not doing corporate jets at all? Or (more likely) they’ve contracted out to another company to handle that?
Simple to buy fractional jet shares and treat as an expense. Probably cheaper and more versatile as you can get as many jets as you want on a particular day. Where your own fleet sits in hangars waiting.
When you DON’T control the service – just buy their products – you really have no control on the product being sold.