Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Because they are not required to offer SIL's and when they audited the whole program it was costing them money. The 15 hours saved did not offset the increase in Green Slips unless a category was really overmanned. It appears the categories are not as overmanned this winter as last. ER Captains in NY are running about the required numbers most days. In Atlanta they are above required by not by a whole lot. Last winter they often had 4o more Captains then required. They also has some occasions last winter where they had to cancel flights when bad weather hit and reserves were out of position. More reserves might have saved those flights. It takes a huge number of SIL to offset the cost of one cancelled international flight.
sailingfun, I agree with you. I was trying to show the error in iahflyer's logic that said NFLs were a replacement for SILs which I, like you, agree they aren't. SILs seemed like a good idea at the time to DAL and were a GREAT deal for the pilots, but weren't contractually required, and in the end DAL determined they weren't worth it to pay a guy 55 hours and have zero ability to use him.
iahflyer and others are blaming ALPA for negotiating NFLs and claiming that is the reason SILs are no longer being offered and I don't believe that. It is yet another reason for the bash ALPA crowd to bash ALPA, which is always a fun side job.
