Originally Posted by
Reroute
That is not a true statement at all. That is speculation. Even if DAL had merged with ASA and CMR there was no requirement to have all DCI flying flown by DAL/ASA/CMR, the growth could have gone to the other DCI carriers, as it did in some circumstances, and DAL still would have retired all the MD-11s, L1011s, 727s, 737,300s and 737-200s, which would have most likely resulted in furloughs.
Let's be honest, DAL bought ASA/CMR for the cheaper labor. Merging ASA/CMR with DAL defeats that purpose. If they wanted DAL pilots to fly 50/70 seat RJs they didn't need to buy ASA/CMR or outsource to the DCI portfolio, they could have just bought the aircraft and put them on the DAL certificate.
It's all about cheap labor, look at what's happening at CMR today, that's what would have happened earlier rather than later had we merged.
The solution was not to merge with ASA/CMR, it was to capture the flying, barring that, to have adequate flow through protections to every carrier that signs a contract at DCI. JMHO.
I kind of agree, DCI exists because management teams long ago wanted to whipsaw the mainline operation.
If that hadn't been the goal sure the CRJ-100
might have shown up on DAL's property nearly 20 years ago and probably would've been gone at least 10 years ago.
One of the issues now is that we're left holding the bag for the long term ramifications of outsourcing from 20 years ago and the failure of the pilot representatives to understand and purposefully halt it.
Am I wrong to think DAL signed off on long term agreements with DCI for airplanes they don't want anymore but now are stuck with in numbers so large it negatively effects us, our airline and our flying?
Oil at $100bb isn't a bad thing imo if it squeezes out 50 seaters and we're left concentrating on the E-Jet and elongated CRJs that are meant to replace 732s and DC9s.