Delta rumor mill
Hope things are looking up. Just got this today.
First, I want to explain a little about the Executive Jet agreement. One of the reasons we signed this contract is to tie up our gates in LAX and keep them from being taken back by the airport. We have huge plans for international expansion out of LAX including 787s. There will be a multi-billion $$ aircraft order announced after we emerge from BK.
JFK - Realignment of mgt at JFK. Improved passenger flow through terminals. $500 million terminal upgrade. Increase in pay for ground workers. Hiring 400 new ground employees for summer. Whitehurst re-iterated his desire to purchase Jet Blew to get their terminal at JFK.
Boston-Logan - long-term plans for Boston include international expansion with the 757-200ERs. This is not going to happen in the short-term as JFK is the focus for now.
CVG - remain status quo. Most profitable hub in 2006. Some summer increase in flight hours.
Winglets - plan on installing them on all of the 737-800s that have kits already installed and the rest later, all of the 757-ERs we get this summer will have the winglets installed before we put them into service (we will be getting these aircraft earlier than planned). All 757-200 will get winglets except the oldest ones. American has promised a 767-300 to the company that makes the winglets so they can flight-test and certify them. Once certification is complete, we will be installing winglets on all of our 767-300s.
5% increase in flight hours for this summer. Staffing may cause some issues.
ASA in ATL - we are replacing all over and under wing workers with Delta employees.
Debt load - AA - $17B, UA - $19B, DL - $7-8B - we will be in considerably better shape once emerging from BK.
Grinstein plans to retire in August.
All flight attendants will be recalled this summer and they will be hiring off the street. If someone on furlough wants to bypass and does not want to get terminated, they should indicate a base that is not recalling. Whitehurst said Delta will not terminate flight attendants unless they bypass recall to a base they chose to be recalled too.