Originally Posted by
Timbo
Many years ago ALPA used a Weight, Speed, seating capacity type formula, to derive rates of pay for many different airframes, but bankruptcy threw that out the window years ago, which is why a 747 now pays the same as the 777. The Max gross T/O wt. of the 777-200LR is about 768,000, I'm not sure what the 747-400's is. I'm guessing it's more than that. Carl?
At Delta, at least in the last 20 years, I am pretty sure seats were never used in the formula. The formula more or less went away with the 737-800 negotiations and later the 777 and 76-4. You had aircraft that were much more efficient than the aircraft they were "replacing" so the goal was to capture that efficiency in the pay rate. If you would have plugged in those aircraft based on the previous formula, (or seats) the rate would have been less.