Originally Posted by
LeineLodge
I'd really like to see this line of thinking go away. Granted, there are plenty of tools out there flying RJ's, but the vast majority of guys are just like you and I. They are already flying Delta pax. They are already flying your family when you go on vacation pretty much anywhere. They are already flying internationally, overwater and in big jets that passengers think are mainline jets.
I respect that you are looking out for your own interests, but if a solution to this came along, that happened far below you on the seniority list, would you really oppose it?
Edit: Btw, there are about 5,000ish pilots on the seniority list that Delta didn't interview and hire. In my experience most pilots are more the same than they are different. I don't think you have anything to fear by a "non-Delta hired invasion." I'm willing to bet about 99% of them would be tickled pink to be here.
Well, I'm not really talking about the food fight over the quality of pilots. And it's a good point that our former Western, PanAm, Northwest, pilots were not interviewed by Delta. (I just wish our former Northeast pilots were! But, they're all gone now.)
I just don't think you are seeing all of the moving pieces, at least not from a management viewpoint. And in the end, they are the ones that will decide what aircraft are best for Delta. Unless you are advocating a return to the RJDC tactic of forcing a merger and SLI, which is what some of this wishful thinking sounds like.
Anyway, consider this. Delta hires about half from the military. (It was more like 90% military in my day) Any future military pilot would be shut out of this "lets capture all the RJ flying" scheme. A pilot hired after that with, say, 10 years military flying would end up at the bottom of a very long list of RJ's and behind someone with 1500 hrs towing a banner. The big hiring wave ahead will leave them languishing behind where they could be today.
Do I care? No. And neither do you probably. Except altruistically. Here is a previous quote from you:
"This is a huge point. Just because those that are currently here had to "pay our dues" doesn't mean that we should let the future pilots languish for years with no hope in sight. "
Sorry, a long post to float the idea that maybe Delta does not want to "capture all the RJ flying" so as to leave other hiring options open. And probably a hundred other reasons I can't think of.