Originally Posted by
iahflyr
The pilot seniority lists at Delta, United, Continental, and Northwest are all fairly similar. That could lead to a fair and equitable merger (plus these airlines are all ALPA, so no staple, and DOH may work out great).
The top 2,000 pilots at Delta took an early retirement during the bankruptcy. This resulted in a young seniority list at Delta. I'm guessing the average pilot is in their early 40's and there are very few over 53 year old pilots. Commensurate with the top 2,000 pilots leaving, Delta pilots enjoyed career progression to the left seat and widebodies, which Delta has many, many, more than NorthWest.
Compare DOH and you'll see a 10 to 13 year NWA pilot can barely hold the 757. Similar seniority at Delta has you as a lineholder on the MD88/90 as a Captain, or a junior Captain on one of the Boeings. (a DOH merger would be close to a staple of the Delta guys near the bottom with having to re-train most of the airline in the resulting bid - not going to happen)
For the new hires the disparity is even greater. New hires are getting the 767ER and probably the 777 this year at DL. The do the same at NWA would take a decade.
NWA has an older fleet and it appears that overall, the number of jets being operated by NWA is set to decrease while Delta's confirmed delivery dates outline their growth. Also Delta has many, many more widebodies and 757's.
For the Delta pilots, particularly the new hires, a NWA merger is bad (perhaps not catastrophic, but really bad).
Who did you end up going to work for? ExpessJet? SkyWest? You have scope and ALPA pretty well figured out, but there is much for all of us to figure out about how a merger of two legacies would work out.
Just look at the pay rates on this web site and let me know how close things are to "being all fairly similar" and "equitable." By your plan a recent hire at Delta would see their pay decrease 40%, need to move to Detroit and trade their 767 books for a DC-9 manual. Nothing about that sounds all that "similar" or "equitable."
If NWA had a similar "early out" package for their pilots, this might work. But I expect ratios, fences and DOH for the recent hires.