Originally Posted by
Name User
Remember when the contract was signed and CnR was chock full of guys proclaiming 300 GI aircraft were "coming in hot" because the rates were so low?
What if we used negotiating capital to increase those rates at the detriment to others? Would that have been a smart play? Or wasted dollars put into the company's pocket?
AA doesn't want another type on property. Dot period. They don't want a bunch of small narrow bodies because when they fly into outstations the ground handling union scope clause kicks in and suddenly it becomes a mainline station.
They either want to service a station with larger mainline sized aircraft or RJs almost exclusively. The places that mix are mostly split with Envoy handling the AA side and mainline guys doing the US Airways flights, such as RDU.
Part of the contention in the TWU-IAM negotiations is that split...the US Air folks want to capture ALL the stations that Envoy currently exists at even with limited mainline service, like Omaha, Des Moines, Kansas City, etc. It will lead to an enormous cost increase and the same as if the FAs or pilots grabbed all AA work including the RJs.
It's an unrealistic expectation and why they are still "negotiating".
Thank you for the insight. My main concern is that as the regional pilot shortage deepens, flying will eventually be brought back to mainline while the regionals retract. Exactly how/when that happens I’m not too sure. But eventually the amount of money that AAG has to throw at the regionals to staff the flying won’t make sense. And when that happens I would not be surprised to see an SNB or large regional (G1) aircraft order.