Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
This is exactly what worries me about this latest development with our fleet plans. I think a bunch of junior MD-88 and DC-9 Captains are no longer going to be able to hold Captain. And then, as you point out, it will be that much longer before a bunch of First Officers will be able to upgrade to Captain. I've seen a lot of spinning of numbers here, but I'm still waiting for someone to show how this will not happen. Perhaps I've missed it? Anyone care to take a stab at this one?
DAL 88,
I'm probably not looking at this right, but here's what I see.
34 DC9-50's parked/30 MD90's brought to the line. In just that I see 4 less airplanes.
Now this last AE had 100+ CA vacancies, and a handful were 73N. It may increase upgrade time. IDK. I can tell you that I've flown with some 320 CA's who are considering going back to WB FO because they don't like the domestic flying. We saw some NB CA's bail back to WB FO on this last AE for likely the same reason. I don't know if the MD90's will replace the exact the flying the DC9 was doing, but they have to replace something.
What's more disturbing is what we already know. A lot of the DC9 flying will continue to be replaced by RJ's flown by pilots who are not on the Delta Seniority list. This is not how we improve our product, but you and I already know that. I just hope we can continue to harp how important it is to recapture the flying. While we often disagree, I KNOW we agree on that.