Originally Posted by buzzpat

From the "LAXFAX" CP office newsletter:

As most of you know, the summer base visit was held in Orange County on August 12th. In attendance were about 40 LAX and layover pilots which, is about 4 times as many as we had at the last visit held in LAX. The meeting lasted about three hours with a very robust question and answer segment. There was a lot of information provided. Some of the bullets are below.

Captain Gary Valvo, Director-Western Region kicked off the festivities with introductions and a brief reminder of the purpose and use of the Maintenance Discrepancy Manual (more on that in a separate e-mail).

Captain Jim Graham, VP Flying Operations & Chief Pilot was the first presenter. Jim’s discussion revolved mainly around the state of the industry in this economy which he described as the worst revenue environment ever.

Following are the bullet points of Captain Graham’s presentation:

• Pax revenue is down 20% with about a 30-40% reduction in business travel—worst revenue environment ever
• We have realized or will shortly realize $650m in synergies from merger
• No furloughs are forecasted
• Delta has over $5B in liquidity, which is a good position relative to the other legacy carriers
• SOC should be around the first of the year
• Our current manning levels are about where the company needs to be for the summer 2010 projections.
• SATCOM cost about $85,000 per aircraft not feasible to put on all ETOPS aircraft. The focus is on a/c used in Africa, SA and Mid East.

Next up was First Officer Barry Wilbur, Director – Pilot Crew Resources and Scheduling
• First post SOC A/E bid will be sometime in January• Furlough payback is 18-24 months, so not forecasted now
• Will look into LAX 7ER crews flying PDX-NRT (should be in October bid package)
• Issue of CVG was raised and it was stated that CVG does have future value and it is hoped that the international flying will return.
• Discussion of the AE process and priorities. In general, however, not always the case, even though AEs are processed first, MDs have priority over AE.

Mike Gallagher Network Planning discussed the following:
• LA is critically important, but it is too early in the merger to tell what’s going to work.
• Lots of movement following SOC (proper gauging of aircraft and bases (i.e possibly A-320/319 to SLC and M90 to MSP)
• Pacific is not doing well due to economy and Swine Flu. Plan has been and continues to be to cancel unprofitable routes, reduce to and maintain Pacific core. Narita footprint will be maintained, but may adjust gauge to fit demand
• Hawaii is doing well
• Fight hard for JFK-LAX traffic by improving on-board products such as Business Elite (aware of issues at JFK Terminal 4, but no clear answer re:fix)
• LAX-SYD very competitive market. Losing money on fares, but cargo loads are helping. May draw down to six days per week. Virgin Blue code share will help draw passengers beyond Sydney and Alaska will help feed the flight
• Advertising is very expensive and would like to advertise but Network planning doesn’t decide. [The issue was raised several; times, but no clear answer.]
• Question about 777 base in LAX—not at this time, International increases in LAX very difficult to make money. Sao Paulo did not work, but may come back late fall or early winter. SYD is a question mark; the company can’t lose money on it indefinitely
• Capacity has been rationalized by the industry
• ATL and MSP are best performing hubs
• We are flying all routes that NWA has
• SEA has important corporate clients such as Microsoft
• 5th Freedom rights in Asia are not in jeopardy.


As you were,
Buzz