Flew with a line check airman last night with some interesting info:
- DAL's interested in a 190-seat replacement first followed by a 100-seat replacement
- A321 or 737-900, perhaps both, to replace the 757
- Possibly 717 hundred seater (additional flying)...FTB? You've said this for some time
-- Airtan's 717 leases will expire, then they will be returned to Boeing. Likewise there are extra 717s in Saudi Arabia that may be available.
- Likely to hire some beginning this Fall since 187 pilots taking early out was higher than anticipated (about 35 were expected)
- Retirements in year 2017 & beyond will exceed current training capacity
-- Will have to offer incentives to get guys to retire early and smooth out the hiring
- 2nd Qtr profit looking like $350M or so
- This last AE generated more training than anticipated
- DOT is good with the LGA slot swap, DOJ is the slowpoke in approval
- A320s were moved from DTW vice MSP because most of DTW is commuter, but most of MSP pilots live in domicile...moving MSP A320s would generate a lot more training
- If network had it's way, there would be no A320s in MSP...they'd all be ATL, NYC, SLC, LAX.
That is all.
