Originally Posted by
sinca3
Is 80 the guy in the front or back of that pic?
Me in the back. It's my thing. Always a wingman.
Originally Posted by
scambo1
Time will tell on next quarter's profit.
IMHO, the 100-130 seat jet is already being flown by outsourced labor.
Time will tell on C2012. Our current collective bargaining agent will determine how 2012 goes for us. Expectations are high, we will see.
Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
Scambo,
You know my position on our outsourcing. The current crop of 70 to 76 seat jets have roughly MD88 operating numbers per ASM. There will be a niche for them, but as American drops the MD's and leaves us with the highest comparable CASM, the market is ripe for the C Series, or something similar.
The reasons for optimism in 2012 and 2013 are a number of long term initiatives which should begin bearing fruit. We will have the new Atlanta international terminal coming on line just as AirTran/SWA starts capacity adjustments. That should help us both operationally and on the revenue side. Progress is being made on our JFK terminal which should help us in 2013 and network is begining to make noises about bringing a fight for business traffic in LAX. It appears we are ready to take advantage of any disruption in American's operation.
We are under fleeted for a lot of this. Partners will be used to fill far to many holes and we must address that in our negotiations. But, there is enough here to think Delta will have to bring mainline capacity on line and grow staffing.
Operationally, we are running better than we have in years and our targets for 2012 have increased to solid industry leading levels. When you see the resources coming on line to support these levels of performance it looks positive.
The wildcards will be Europe, Fuel and possibly Asia. If Iran tries to block the Strait of Hormuz it would be interesting until there were three more Kilo Class subs on the ocean floor.
Bar, I Tebow that you're right, it would be very good.
Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
Back to the L&G on Delta. According to a MD88 LCA, at the last meeting with management ... next quarter will be the most profitable Winter in Delta's history.
IMHO - sets us up well for the discussion of a 100 to 130 seat jet which is supposed to be revisited this year, as well as C2012.
Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
Scambo,
You know my position on our outsourcing. The current crop of 70 to 76 seat jets have roughly MD88 operating numbers per ASM. There will be a niche for them, but as American drops the MD's and leaves us with the highest comparable CASM,
But the thing is, if we're profitable with the fleet as is why would increasing debt to have the same seating and possibly same range help us be more profitable?
Sure fuel is an issue but you can hedge on a plane or hedge on the fuel, but only one has to be a long term financial commitment.
I ask because I saw this with CAL. Pre 9/11 they had this shiny new fleet of jets (excluding 735s) and all of it Boeing and all on the credit card. 9/11 happens and our industry takes a dive and they still have a high credit card payment while NWA had them by the privates.
The C-Series would be fantastic if it's everything the drawings say it will be plus it comes at 739 type discounts. I'm not sure what they'd do if they could get their hands on the 717s before the C-Series flies. I guess one way to look at it is if a restaurant is empty at noon then there might be a reason. Others haven't ordered the C-Series either.
But I'd love to have a huge fleet of them. They seem nice but here's an interesting possibly throw away pull quote from a recent C-series article:
Production slots for the CSeries are already booked until mid-2016, which means the company won’t need to discount the aircraft just to keep production lines operating, Beaudoin said.
The jet will compete against the smallest variants of single-aisle 737s from Chicago-based Boeing and A320s from Toulouse, France-based Airbus. Brazil’s Embraer SA (EMBR3) said last month it will upgrade its E-170 and E-190 jets with new engines and wings by 2018 rather than build a new, larger model to take on the CSeries and its competitors.