Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
In the AF-KLM-DAL JV it is not just about seats, but ESK's (Equal Seat Kilometers) What that means is that cargo carrying capability as well as seats are taken in to account to come up with the ESK metric for each jet. Because of this one flight of a 380 equates to three flights of a 767ER. We fly about 2/3rds of the block time in the JV but only half of the ESK's.
I have tried to point out that since they cost more them flying larger metal with less block actually works better for the JV partners. (Not us but the airlines) As a result we will see more flying in smaller aircraft like the 767 and 330 here at DAL.
That's how I thought of it too, but tsquare brings up an interesting angle: how those ESK's are calculated. Is it 100% certain that any plane AF puts across the pond counts for total seats and cargo, regardless of the percentage allocated to the DL/SkyTeam partnership? IOW, can AF put a 380 CDG-ATL with 500 seats (keeping the numbers simple and assuming cargo per seat is about the same) and then saying "oh no monsieur, only 200 seats are sellable/codeable by DL the rest are purely AF" so all mother D has to do is slap one 76ER on the route and call it even Steven?
Does the terms of our JV lock in 100% of all ESK's total, in their metal, including all their affiliate companies (KLM, who knows maybe one day Britair?, etc) plus all of
their code shares and JV's including those they haven't entered into yet?