Originally Posted by
ancman
I appreciate your optimism and personally want you to be right.
However, Ed’s retirement is highly unlikely to bring any change to Flight Ops’ basing philosophy. Base consolidation has gone on for decades here, throughout multiple CEO tenures.
Where did management state that they desire faster coverage for recovery in the central U.S.? Between ATL, MSP, and SLC, any point in the central U.S. is accessible in less than 2 hours of flying time. How does a small, single-fleet pilot base in a low-frequency AUS hub meaningfully increase operational reliability in other parts of the central U.S.?
By 2030, Flight Ops might have a new uniform vendor chosen to provide the same uniform that we’ve had since the 1930’s. You’re giving them way too much credit.
Yet, BOS 330 and SEA 350 back to back - yes I’m highly optimistic more are to come both NB & WB. Growth is coming both in fleet and pilot group and the hubs have so many gates. More categories and surely new bases are coming with it.
I’m a firm believer FLT OPS will open a pilot base when it makes financial sense. I don’t believe they are against opening a pilot domicile purely out of spite at all. If the numbers makes sense Delta generally does it.
In the article I posted earlier; VP Network noted nearing around 80 daily departures (including partners) when next Spring has around 60 loaded. That’s with around 6 gates - Delta is set to receive 15 in 2030 (and hopefully more) making nearly on par volume wise with BOS. Unlike BOS, AUS fits perfectly in Delta’s domestic network for connecting traffic (especially those west of the Mississippi River as to not backtrack to ATL.. and yes SLC is WAY to far away as DTW/MSP are too far north) driving up frequency. I see AUS 320 (as it is the backbone of Delta’s operation), but 73N and 220 are viable too. BOS is a key intl. operation - poor domestic connection.
https://news.delta.com/media/video/63066
Delta has acutely grown Austin this past year and is only indicating they want back in the TX market with their own hub to capture the rapidly growing TX market. It’s been their #1 “pet project” now and for awhile.