Originally Posted by
Justdoinmyjob
Regardless of what the doom and gloomers post here, that is not true about Delta. Yes, there are areas of concern with regards codesharing and JVs, but overall the RJ fleet has shrunk and mainline has grown, albeit the NB fleet. WB growth would be better, but in this context, SWA vs Delta, since career expectation at SWA is a NB captain, isn't it apples to apples?
To clarify, I was referring to the number of Delta pilots shrinking, not aircraft (the number that really matters). Which brings up another consideration: productivity. SWA pilots have long lead the industry in productivity (avg annual block hrs flown, pilots/aircraft, etc), and it sounds like the legacies will be striving to improve their pilot productivity in the future. Which will bring more stagnation like Delta is experiencing currently with no new-hires replacing their retiring pilots. As an aside, SWA-ATN combined is currently quite overstaffed due to fleet & Intl qual & new res system issues (hence no movement here for awhile), but that will resolve in the next 2 years.
Which leads to a third consideration: growth opportunities. The Big 3, through their own fleets and their many codesharing partners, already pretty much fly from everywhere to everywhere else. Where SWA is just starting to break out of the lower 48. It's a big untapped world out there and unless there is a major cave on scope from SWAPA, it will all be flown by SWAPA pilots