Originally Posted by
tsquare
That's a bit of a stretch in this case isn't it? Don't get me wrong, I think that there needs to be plenty of scrutiny on this, but until they substitute a baby bus for an RJ, what grounds do we have on a grievance?
If RAH is a single transportation system then we are contracting one airline that flies everything from 37 seaters to 162 seat Airbuses to fly for us and the multi-certificate charade is over.
As a Delta Connection carrier you can acquire and fly aircraft that exceed the limits of what is allowed for DCI as long as that airplane is certified to seat less than 106 and configured for less than 97 and if it seats between 71 and 97 seats you can't fly it on a Delta route. In fact, if RAH had stuck to 97-seat E175s and flew them as Midwest Airlines it'd been fine by the contract as long as they never touched our routes. But if RAH/Frontier is STS, then we are in essence contracting Frontier to fly as Delta Connection and you can check off every no no listed in Section 1D.
To me this is tantamount to having Jetblue acquire E175s and then having Jetblue pilots fly Delta painted E175s for DCI with all of the income from the guaranteed profit on that operation funneled right back into the coffers of Jetblue, an airline we compete with.
If that status quo continues and DALPA doesn't fight this then all JB needs to do is create another Part 121 certificate and they to would qualify for Delta Connection.
As of right now, there is nothing we can grieve thus we have to go back to the NMB for RAH to be declared STS. IMO, the NMB sure is baiting us to ask that question again. The IBT is who brought this suit and they're not stupid, if they had asked for the NMB to find RAH an STS then they're out of Delta, UsAir and American and they cannot afford that at all.
To me the NMB gave all of these precedents of airlines they found to be STS that were far less integrated than RAH to the point I think they were being funny. Hence, the T-ball analogy and hence the angst.
Or better yet, Bull Durham. Kevin Costner's Crash character is the NMB and that wussy Tim Robbin's Nuke character is RAH. Crash is telling you what Nuke is about to throw. All you have to do is hit it... and while I hope DALPA will be defining Air Carrier in such a way to preclude future "Holdings" airlines, there are a lot wiser people who've dealt with ALPA a lot longer that stoke my fear that it ain't happening. They ain't going to swing.