Originally Posted by
webecheck
I don't understand how that is possible. If less airplanes fly the same block hours, isn't it irrelevant since staffing is dependent on block? One could even argue its a financial benefit to the pilots in terms of profit sharing to have the minimum # of planes necessary and not a single one extra.
Guess I am not sure which part you are questioning as not possible?
You are correct that we should care about block hours not airframes.
As far as the effect on Profit Sharing goes, one would have to know the total CASM and RASM for each aircraft to determine the benefit of buying new airplanes versus keeping old ones. I will let the Management group that deals with aircraft purchases continue to do that, as they have not ever asked for my input in the past and don't anticipate them asking in the future!
My point of having "extra" flying if we kept the whales, was in my own personal dream world where we not only keep the whales, but also buy the new aircraft and grow the operation substantially. That would result in a much larger increase in block hours than we will get with using the new aircraft as (mostly) replacements for the 747. In that dream world, we fly the 747 until the original planned replacement, the A350, or it's replacement order comes along.
Unfortunately, that ship has sailed, so now we will get a small increase in widebody flying and then just have to hope that whatever becomes of the 350 order (how far into the future is anybody's guess) nets us some growth airplanes as we go forward.
In the meantime, the 787-10s should start showing up around the time of the last 777-300, so hopefully we get enough of those over the 18-19 winter to see some WB growth again in the summer of 19!