Originally Posted by
blastoff
Of course there is. There are aircraft exchange ratios in the UAL CPA, and there will be on the DAL side if the DAL TA passes. It will be at least a year before we start seeing airframes exchanged (SKYW Inc still hasn't ordered new airplanes yet). Any loss in airframes will be offset with attrition, and we'll probably be hiring during all of it. This doesn't even account for possible AA flying. The company is in an obvious freak-out mode about getting everybody ATP eligible by 2013, so what does that tell you? But hey, these guys don't want to listen to facts, they just want to Chicken Little their way into a sub-standard TA. They act like 200 airframes will disappear tomorrow.
Frankly, the only thing that getting everyone ATP-eligible tells me is that they want to be in compliance with the law. I'm not sure how that's a harbinger of good things to come.
I know everyone is a little freaked out, but there is so much large-scale change coming it's hard not to worry/be excited/freak out some about it. Between the retirements, rest-rules, ATP law, new JCBA, SLI after that, Delta TA, United working on theirs.... I'm having a hard time figured out whether to be worried or excited.