Originally Posted by
higney85
For some reason it seems very apparent that the company wants to get to 81 airplanes as quickly as possible via natural attrition. Why? I don't know. I've asked and been told "it's in the business plan and the plan is good". Of course this is from folks who don't have a spot on the seniority list or are even pilots for that matter, but when I ask "why" the answer remains that 81 airplanes is where we will be and its a good thing. Asking "what happens when we get close to 81 and attrition still outpaces hiring?" Gets a "DL" controls hiring and they know all the attrition details. So who knows. Guys are bailing to CPZ and PSA, CA's are going to DL and other majors, some are leaving the industry, some are going to LCC's. In the end, it's all speculation. Nobody would have forecasted all the industry changes 2 years ago and been spot on for each carrier across the regional industry.
Not to stir the pot, but DL isn't stupid at this shell game. Unfortunately, nobody knows the current playbook to do anything but speculate and make decisions based on personal views and positions.
.....And speculation is all that this is, but this is the hunch I have:
DAL pilot contract is up for renewal in 2015. Negations have already begun as I understand it. One likely hot button issue is "scope" and "taking back scope". As it happens, Delta already owns and operates 81 76 seat two-class jets, complete with 3 sims, full mx, and dispatch infrastructure. I see a potential for DAL offering to bring these 81 airframes onto mainline in return for "xyz" where of course xyz saves them a ton of money. Our 81 airplanes would be another 500 or so captain seats that would likely go pretty junior, so the likelihood of them taking the offer would be pretty high. I don't think the airplanes would transfer all at once overnight, although I suppose they could. But DAL is to smart to flush all the staffing for 81 airplanes out onto the street and than try to hire equal staffing through their process. I think we would see some kind of integration, perhaps with some fencing and some form of cursory gate keeping at least for awhile.
So IF there where any validity to my theory, it would make sense that they would want us to be 900 ONLY by that time, as having 200's in the mix would only complicate things,
In addition, the "tiger team" has spent a lot of time and resources re-writing manuals that where just re-written a year ago. Now they are (apparently) virtually identical to DAL and even contain DAL branding. Having procedures that are based on DAL is neato, but doesn't make business sense to spend money on unless there is a chance that a DAL pilot may one day need to be trained on the a/c.
Just my two cents, not trying to start rumors, just makes total business sense and fits with DAL's MO of engineering win/win deals and thinking outside the box.
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