Originally Posted by
Timbo
And...to add to that thought, the "Next Big Thing" Delta is (talking about) getting is the 787 (in 2020). Using the age old weight, speed, #seats formula, that aricraft is going to fit in somewhere around the 767ER, size/pay wise, yet it will be the replacement jet for the 747, 777, 765, and A330. Pay cuts all around.
10 years from now we could be looking at a 2 aircraft type fleet; 737's for domestic and 787's as our highest paying International Widebody. Our previous CEO, Jerry the Genius told me as much when he was on my flight to Amsterdam one day, about 3mo. prior to bankruptcy.
We may want to reconsider our pay formula as newer airplanes shrink, and go with longevity pay, or suffer the consequenses of ever smaller new (replacement) jets. Richard is on record spouting that frequency matters more than size, so look for a smaller overall gauge in new aircraft, with more frequency. This was the same philosophy RJ Fred Reid used to bring us all the RJ's in the first place. "The Business Man want's Frequency!"
I doubt Delta is ever going to order any A380's or 747-800's...so what does that leave in the way of new (replacement) jets?
Hear hear! We will be shooting ourselves in the foot if we don't fix this issue. For a huge company like ours with multiple airplane types, pay banding is the way to go. I laugh at our pilots when they compare SWA 737 rates with our 777/747s. 100% of SWA pilots make that pay. Only a small fraction of our pilot groups make 777/747 pay. Pay-band us together and lets negotiate our way to SWA + much more!! The only smaller thing we have from SWA 737s are the mad dogs. We'll be in a much better position to negotiate once we're pay-banded.