Originally Posted by
NuGuy
Alfa is correct.
When we were negotiating to fly the EMB up north, the company said "Nope, no way, they're sold out for 4 years".
When Compass was created, 36 "sold out" airplanes magically appeared virtually overnight.
When they were studying the replacement frieghter "nope, nothing out there that is remotely cost effective and lease rates are too high". Then, magically, a whole bunch of cargo outfits found very cost effective frieghters...virtually overnight.
When they were studying the DC-9 replacement "nope, nothing out there is what we are looking for...too large, too small, not enough cargo, too much cargo, not enough wing, too much wing, won't fit the jetway, too expensive...blah blah blah"
When we let them have more 76 seaters, the EMBs and CRJ900s magically filled the gates where our DC-9s, 737s and 319s parked...virtually overnight.
They want the airplanes....what they don't want is us.
Nu
Nu makes a lot of great points here. They can get jets when they want them if they want them.
I do however remember Boeing lamenting the over production ramifications they suffered from earlier to where they gave a optimum lead time on orders to be I want to say 2-3 years? Or maybe I'm confusing manufacturers on the time frame but I swear it was Boeing that suffered from overproduction problems.
Boeing could always create a new venture with a manufacturer free of the IBT, NLRB and US Govt, free of a lot of issues plus provide them with an immediate 100 seater jet... Embraer? My bet is Boeings next final assembly line will not be in the U.S. After all there is a great model their customers developed called outsourcing what you do best and making money on the ancillary stuff.
As for Delta, we don't need to order new when we can acquire used jets about to be parked:
Cheap and easy.