Originally Posted by
maddogmax
12. Just hired a "Fuel Czar" from the oil industry to run our fuel purchase program. Even mention we might need to look at buying a refinery. All options on the table.
You know, this works for Warren Buffet and his Netjets. He bought his whole supply chain, he owns FlightSafety and Signature and probably the insurance company. When I was doing corporate flying I'd get the netjets signature discount on insurance which put our rate around $50,000/yr for a $24M airplane which I believe was about a 1/3 of the normal price.
But more importantly was that discount on fuel because it was tremendous. They're overpriced but still, I think if the fuel price was in the high $6 dollar range I was paying in the high mid 3s or low 4s. Worse case maybe $5. But hey, buy a 1000-2200 gallons and save a $1/gal was well worth it.
Still, we owned our own fuel farm which again shows the value in owning your supply chain because instead of $5-$6+ a gallon I was paying in the mid to high $2s. So as long as you know what you are doing. Anybody ever ran a fuel farm? It's about as fun as dealing with this %@#$@# thing:
Originally Posted by
maddogmax
13. Delta wants to "WIN" in NY and LA. Slot swat should happen soon. Had comments about USAIR but probably should not quote.
He he he, you said "win".
Originally Posted by
maddogmax
"Not in a hiring mode" but looking forward the next 4-6 years could need 800 pilots a year but can only train 600 at the max.
So, we're not hiring, but we know when we do we can't push people through fast enough. Hmmm.
When I had recurrent the other day I went down to the training center a little early and played in the CAPT trainer. I may have been the only person in the building, albeit a sunday, but it was dead except for the actual sims, they were a little busy but I saw a lot of them with the bridges connected and doors opened and nobody around.
Maybe shorten training up a bit? Just a thought. Don't kill the messenger. And if people were the issue well, you've got pilots willing to be SLIs. I think I heard for 3 MD88 SLI positions there was 300-400 applicants last year? On ATL M88 B if you do a day trip and get a raw score of 10-11 at the beginning of the month you might not fly again until the end of the month.
BTW, how did you dirty dogs up there in MSP do your SLI's? Wasn't it a requirement 1 month on the line and 1 month in the sim? Not perpetual sim with say 3 months on the line as DAL does? Or obviously heavily DGS?