Originally Posted by
JoeMerchant
1. It is expensive to the company, and thus costs the union a lot of negotiating capital which comes out of the more senior mainline pilots and probably results in a NO vote at the mainline.
Very true, however, it isn't the pilot costs that are the driver of this. It is all the associated costs of operating the aircraft from flight attendants, to dispatchers and integrating the aircraft with the mainline dispatching system. That's where the higher costs come in, we just hold the keys for the scope so to speak.
Originally Posted by
JoeMerchant
2. As was shown in RJDC lawsuit depositions with USAirways MEC members, the mainline gets a "bargaining credit" for helping management with keeping regional feed costs low. The less the company has to pay for this regional feed, the more the mainline MEC gets to negotiate for in the total size of the pie....
That's the beauty of flying your own code.
Originally Posted by
JoeMerchant
3. If the mainline pays a lot for the RJ feed, guess what happens next? There is no longer a limit on the number of 90 seaters that the company can use, and they are very cheap now. Most domestic flying now goes to this cheap 90 seat flying and the only high paid jobs are the wide body jobs for international and certain trans cons. Over all, it is a net loss for the mainline group.
Actually, quite the opposite is true now. Until recently the above was true, but now DL has those 717's and UA is actively working on filling the 100 seat gap. We have over 13,000 pilots in the pool on airline apps for DL and UA to pull from. The regionals simply can't keep up.
In UA's scope, though we increased the gauge, the overall UAX operation will shrink by 200+ airframes, block hour limits tightened and go off of mainline narrow-body block hours only. In fact, management is pretty close/or at the limit allowed for in our scope clause. There are over 100 former UA/CO 737-500's sitting in the dessert that the company is looking to possibly bring back.
Originally Posted by
JoeMerchant
I doubt Sailingfun will acknowledge any of this, but this is the main reason mainline/ALPA national doesn't really push for it.
There is one other reason that doesn't involve economics....There is a very prevalent belief within DALPA/ALPA/Mainline groups that regional pilots aren't as good. That second class status combined with the above economics guarantee that ALPA will never change the current system.
Yeah, I've flown with some tools that feel this way about regional pilots. Most of them have been scabs and couldn't get a job anywhere else so they stole one. I quickly point out that doing hub-turns in a CRJ is a lot more difficult than doing a transcon in 757.
Throw in an app and come on over JB, the water is nice
