Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Your points are valid except for one point. This company is in survival mode. You can deny that all you want but it does not change the facts. In 2002 and 2003 Delta lost 2.7 billion dollars total. They were never able to recover and filed chapter 11. We lost that much money or more in Apr and May. We are currently losing 2.7 billion a quarter! Traffic in 2002 after 911 was down 10% from 2000 the best year in Delta’s history and it was devastating. We are done 70% now. Thus does not even get into yields which are also horrid. We are carrying 30% loads while charging half of what we were a year ago. If that’s not sobering what can you say. Frankly I am stunned that all the company is asking for is a ALV reduction to partially offset the cost of not furloughing.
Sailing,
I generally agree that the current environment is worse than 9-11 but do not agree that we are in "survival mode." To paraphrase Gloria Gaynor - Delta will survive. Without a doubt DAL will be around. More on that later.
Can DAL survive without a trip to BK is the real question in my mind. As to this question I don't see an ALV cut making a difference one way or another.
Your above numbers are totally cherry picked without context. For instance the 2 Billion dollar losses you post above where before the merger when our highest profit was something like 1 Billion. Recently we have producing upwards of 5 Billion a year in profits. This is why DAL will survive - too much upside potential on the back end. Obviously corporate America also thinks this way - thus the non-government funding that DAL secured. Airlines aren't going away, well not all of them anyway, and since we were printing coin prior to Covid we are a pretty safe bet.
OK - so I don't agree with the way you are throwing around certain numbers to make your point without putting it into context but I agree with you on perhaps the bigger points of your post:
This crisis is worse than 9-11 - agreed.
ALV reductions will be self correcting - mostly agree.
Now my disclaimer - in the form of questions for APC:
Who here would trust management to honor a no - furlough clause for an ALV drop?
If we are bargaining for this what should DALPA ask for in return?
What happened to exhausting voluntary measures prior to an ALV cut?
To me the biggest threat here is some sort of lower ALV with a lower TLV that works its way into our PWA permanently. Either through poor negotiation on DALPAs part or some sort of BK induced concession. If the company were to be allowed to lower the ALV every off season and ramp it up every summer it could really hurt us long term.
Scoop