Originally Posted by
Sunvox
Yes, honestly I am very surprised. I think Mr. Kirby is smart so I assume he knows the pilot group is unified on the issue of Scope. One poster suggested that the comment was meant to appease Wall St. and had no real weight. I am simply surprised at the comment. The reality is the company is adding 31 fifty seat planes next year because they are "choked" and can not add 72 seat planes. So to me Scope is working and now we have the upper hand and THAT may give Todd the bargaining chip we need to finally get RJ flying "in house".
I listened to the call, and multiple analysts asked about scope. Kirby did mention wanting a higher ratio of 76 seaters, but actually defended the pilot group's animosity towards scope relief. He mentioned cities like Rochester, MN, are ideal rj destinations but management in the past used them on routes like EWR-ATL while furloughing. He said it was the wrong move and that UA pilots are rightfully mistrustful of scope relief.
In fact, Oscar and Kirby both stood up against some analyst comments when it came to labor costs on a couple of questions. Pretty refreshing change from Smisek but still worries me on the activist investor front.
Said "stay tuned" with regards to a 100 seat aircraft.
Oh, and Oscar also said he wants an "on-time" industry leading contract for the pilot group.
They were under serious fire from the Wall Street gang the entire call for the projected 4-6% growth.
As for RJ's coming in house, I don't know if we will ever see that. Staffing with mainline pilots is one thing, but what if now you have to add mainline FAs, MX, rampers, etc? Two biggest costs are fuel and labor and now DL and AA can bleed you to death.
It should be an interesting 12 months.