Originally Posted by
tsquare
And how long have they been waiting for a contract? Every year, inflation however fortunately low.. eats into their earnings. But I'll betcha that 4/8/3/3 would be fine with them... Of course I could be wrong on that, but they have not ever to my knowledge had that kind of contract. Hopefully shoelu will chime in on that. Either way though, inflation still exists, and when the bubble starts to burst, it will get bigger. And then where will a contract that is stuck in limbo be getting you? 0/0/0/0/0/0/25/5/5 is worth a helluva lot less than 4/8/3/3... and start again. It's just math, but that seems to be mythical on these boards.
Oh, and haven't you heard? All ours are cost neutral.
But this thread wasn't about that anyway. I really couldn't care less what they do on their contract as long as they raise some kind of bar. What this thread is about is their government blessed monopoly at one airport. I'm guessing that there will be a lawsuit involved at some point in time and access to other carriers that will really compete with them will be granted. But for now enjoy the Delta 717 service.
I'd take 4/8/3/3 as long as it involved retro pay which has multiple past precedents. Of course we are not trying to dig our way out from a 42% pay cut, if we were I'm not sure that would have gotten my yes vote.
There very well may be a lawsuit at some point, but the 5 party agreement is very clear. There are no common use gates at Love, they are now and will continue to be spoken for. The city of Dallas can force other airlines to be accommodated by the current gate owners but only if those gates are not fully utilized which is identified as 5 turns or 10 flights a day. If those minimums are met no one can force the gate owners to share their gates.
Delta had every right to raise objections when they were not allowed gate space in the current situation. Although both United and VA have announced service that will fulfill the stipulations of full utilization, they are not currently offering that service which leaves room for Delta to use the gates they formally had access to. If all parties begin flying the schedules they have put forth in January, all gates will be "fully utilized" and Delta will no longer be accommodated.