Originally Posted by
Ftrooppilot
Forget all the hype about stapling Compass. It's a two way pipe dream to give Compass Pilots a Delta seniority number and mainline getting a "little " scope back. Too many look at the situation through their own rose colored glasses - not how management looks at it.
How does Delta gain the most ?
A significant Delta furlough down to Compass is unmanageable. Compass has about 332 pilots; Delta has about 12,000. If they were to furlough 10% it would displace the majority of Compass pilots (sunk training costs) and still have another 800 Delta pilots looking for employment. The training workload and associated costs would be unacceptable - especially if there were a recall with improving economy and / or purchase of new aircraft. Compass is a good “cash cow” if Delta has need of $$$$ to purchase new aircraft. Compass routes could easily be picked up by Mesaba, Pinnacle and ASA. (From a 1/02/09 Post)
The economy is bad but there are always buyers out there if the price is right. Attempts to leverage stapling may speed up the selling efforts
If Compass is sold the flow up/down (NWA LOAs 2006-10 & 14) still apply: DAL would still be paying training costs. Simply selling Compass does not relieve the company of it's obligations. If the flow is terminated, other companies can't just "fill in the gaps" because it would reduce the # of large regional jets allowed at DCI by 35.
Also, if DAL furloughed 10%, it would require the company to reconfigure every single 71-76 seat regional jet back to 70 seats. Getting rid of the Compass flow and associated penalties is just a pipe dream for DAL management, but selling it would generate quite a bit of cash.