Originally Posted by
bluejuice71
Anyone got any intel on Dickson's lounge briefing today?
I missed the first half hour and came in just before the network guy started. Everybody was cautiously upbeat overall. Nothing really new (including the cold pizza). About as many guys in civvies as in uniform, mostly from the 4th floor and CPO.
Domestic will grow slightly. B717 deliveries on schedule for August, in service for September. B737-900's enter service most likely in October. Some older 757's coming out and a lot of RJ's coming out. Frontier rumor debunked. Said that this management team evaluates just about everything (including Frontier) and that almost all the evaluations result in no action.
Europe will shrink a little more, with AF/KLM shrinking more than us. They pick up MSP-CDG for 3 months, we pick up 4 routes year round (2nd BOS, EWR, DTW and one other one I don't remember). Guy said they don't keep score by route but by capacity and financial performance. More hub flying, less secondary city flying. Going to focus CDG to be like AMS. Taking a few 7ER and making them "high density" for certain JFK and beach flying.
Pacific growing. SEA will be the Asia gateway and will grow some more. LAX will get more feed for international connect, but won't compete in domestic markets where we don't have an advantage (like LAX-IAH, DFW).
Latin growing. Constrained by Brazilian government.
Running 6 side by side mod lines for lie-flats and international configuration. 2014 first year with full widebody fleet in service. Widebody RFP in late 2013. 787-8 definitely not coming. Overweight, underranged, and underperforming. 787-9 is potentially better option but still not proven. Dickson went to Toulouse and flew A350 sim...really liked it if it lives up to promise. Anderson going next month. Likes the competition between manufacturers. Said Airbus incorporated lessons learned from A380 design into A350.
Crew Resources guy: DC-9 will stay until heavy maintenance due. Real problem staffing the airplane. Had to move a sim and can only train 2 crews per month. Flight ops would have preferred a/c parked to train pilots on other jets (MD-90 deliveries). ATL, MSP like 3 and 2 day trips, DTW and NYC like long trips (go figure). Trying to match flying to base desires. Still working with RCC to improve QOL.
I didn't take notes, so that's going from memory.