And from earlier this year.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We’ll have our first question from Jamie Baker, JPMorgan.
Jamie N. Baker - JPMorgan Securities LLC
Hey, good morning everybody. First question relates to the pilots, and I realize it’s a little bit early to be asking given the contract runs through next year. But, when you achieved the current contract you had pretty clear asks, you needed improved access to large RJs. You needed better mechanism to facilitate a 50-seat retirements and of course, the 717 was a component of the current contracts.
So, as we look forward and ponder what the pilot ask might be for 2016 and beyond. It isn't clear to me that you're in a stronger position to negotiate it, it isn't clear what the management incrementally needs. Is there something we need to be concerned about?
Edward H. Bastian
Well. No, you shouldn’t be concerned about it, simply because of our track record. I think if you look back over the past eight years, we've always been able to partner with our pilots and figure out what we need to do to keep Delta at the top of the industry. And while we don't talk specifically about how or when we engage and what we talk about, our track record is the best in the industry in that regard.
vs
Lee Moak with Bloomberg
Moak contends that ALPA pilots at the larger carriers enjoy what he calls “mature, good contracts” already. Radical overhauls aren’t in the cards, he says.
Most of the contract talks are likely to center on basic compensation—hourly pay rates and how much carriers pay into pilots’ retirement plans. “There will be a business discussion of pay as it relates to revenue,” Moak says. “You can argue about $2 or $2.05, and that matters to the crew member,” but “you’re working on the margins” on the new contracts, he says.
I love that in that article they even say this about the airlines:
Airlines have been mum on what they’ll seek in the contract talks, despite some analyst queries on quarterly earnings calls.
