Operation is running on red line
 

There is no way that this weekend isn’t a statement that we are running at red line. During normal ops it’s okay, but this is a bad weekend.

We have had crew cancellations. Sure.

We also have flights going at insanely late hours. For example, last night 1720 DTW to GRR. 3:19am departure. 4:11am arrival. Delayed 4:36.

That’s one I saw on the board that stood out to me. Several others significantly delayed. Some until 9AM today. We still completed the flights, but what a mess.

There is no way that this can’t go unnoticed by the 4th floor crowd. With LCWs 75-90 not being sustainable, ANY hiccup in our operation, especially in a hub sends us off the deep end.

We were also 3:20 late last night. Waiting for a captain. My captain timed out because of a green slip that he picked up the other night to cover them during a storm.

This is not sustainable long term.

I'm on reroute number 4 of a four day. Hafeht had a rest over 11 hours.

Legal but I'm beat.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

I’m on reroute number 6 this trip! All with 10 hours of rest!

I am on reroute 3 on day 2. Plane I flew first flight out this morning was supposed to get in at 2230 last night got in at 0245. Calling crew tracking to get enough hours behind the door took about an hour and a massive exercise in restraint. Call accommodations to change the van time and she says do it yourself I am to busy. She must have been I was on hold for 20 minutes. I feel optimized!

My flight out in the morning is “on time” but one of the FAs doesn’t land from seattle until departure + 4 hours.

So that’ll be a blast showing up at 545AM and then seeing that we are delayed until 10:20AM.

Major storms in all hubs. $h1t happens.

Redline works fine until the weather rolls in. Split crew pairings don’t work when flights start getting delayed. 90 hour lines burn people out so they don’t want or need to pick up extra time.

Exactly. The storms in nearly every Delta hub daily are the biggest contributing factor for the operation struggling. You can't predict mother nature and its not fiscally responsibile to staff an airline for summer long IROPS and be massively overstaffed the rest of the year.

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

People are stepping up and picking up extra time. It's just that there is literally no one left. Folks are on GS #4+

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

Exactly. Shouldn’t have stopped hiring.

It does? Wow I didn’t realize.

You could always retire early and help mother D’s bottom line! TIC

I don’t think anyone thinks we should hire until every day or reserve coverage is blue and +20 but my category next month is short every day except for like 4. And that’s before the month starts... just an example of why some people think we’re understaffed in general rather than just for major storms in every major US city and or hub.

How many flights have we cancelled due to lack of aircrew?

60 last I heard? Not sure what the count was. What’d you hear?

Edit: don’t know that’s the aircrew cancel number. If you know please share.

If your point is we do a gazillion flights and only cancelled a small number, I think deltas ingenious delay/cancel policy might skew that metric a smidge.

It was posted on SkyHub Friday that the expected crew cancellations were 10-20 for that day. Saturday seemed worse from a pilot availability perspective but I haven’t seen any cancel stats posted. So...something close to 60 isn’t outside the realm of possibility.


GP

House of cards. Always has been always will be. Love those 12 hour delays so they can brag 0% cancelations in summer IROP. Have some more of that purple kool aid boys. It will hold you over til profit sharing day again.

If they get periodically reminded how important staffing and crews really are, I'm okay with that.

They flat out cancelled one of my legs after we diverted. Not delayed. Just red cancelled. I'm curious to see if 0% cancellations is still bragged on.

They rerouted me off my overnight to cover a turn then cancelled my overnight due to no replacement FO.

What base and equipment?

88B

Filler

Not my point. I believe I just asked a question. I agree with the last part of your post. However, I still think we are far and away the most reliable airline out there.

Agreed. I hope they keep it that way.

Crew Planning spoke a little while ago about constructing rotations with "firewalls" to absorb shocks for delays and IROPs. They did this by creating longer sits and increasing layover times.

However, they simultaneously reduced their staffing "firewall". Silly goofs.

Oh look, Ecam is mad at delta again

Completely agree, Just a thought I had after I reread your post.

For now...once the NPS starts to decline, they either increase hiring o decrease flying. This is not sustainable, someone will get in trouble while flying fatigue in a GS.

I called scheduling today to ask a question and the guy seemed overwhelmed and irritated, at 10am. I felt sorry for him, it’s a hard job try to cover all this flying without pilots.

He’s nothing if not consistent.


GP

It's a fine balance. Would it be better to carry a 10% pilot surplus 360 days a year, so that we can be staffed appropriately for the 5 days if IROP a year? Obviously Delta doesn't think so. Probably a wiser business decision to just eat the loss on the IROP days than to waste money overstaffing the airline, but we obviously can't see all the data.

I'll just put my GSWC in and hangout at home :D

A little birdy told me a few weeks ago when SD was still here he chose to run the operation a little “fatter” on pilots for this issue we are seeing. When EB wanted all non fuel costs reduced by 1-2% this year, the higher ups on the 4th floor chose to reduce hiring to comply with that outlook. According to some of the people “in the know” we were averaging 500 GS’s a month last year this time this year we’ve been averaging between 6k-8k a month during the summer so far since May...

Next month the pilot reserve levels show that the ATL 88B is way over staffed most days, and I mean way overstaffed.

8 THOUSAND green slips a month? Yikes.

GS & A:
5,000 last June.
8,600 this June.

GS DUTY PERIODS, not trips! That's how it has always been measured. Still a lot.

And yet I sit on my deck drinking a fine Helles looking at the Rocky Mountains. Green slips are not the answer. More pilots and more $$. I won't fly them. Time off is the reason to have this job.

And without adequate CS and even subs like whoever does the hotel accoms etc. Big storms in hubs are a valid excuse to cancel flights and do some RR's (although IMO all RR's should be premium pay but I digress) but its not an excuse to have so few CS resources that on duty pilots are sleeping in crew rooms in markets where there's no way you're getting a hotel on your own when that happens. There is never an excuse for that even if they didn't light 14B on fire. All airlines are drawn to that model though because its simply irresistible. Most days it saves money.

Running lean is different than running redline and there has to be the infrastructure to support the inevitable reality of what happens when you run redline and the inevitable IROPS etc happens.

June was the most monthly GS awarded in the company’s history. I have a feeling such a historic record is going to last all of 30 days.

You should quit. 100% time off[emoji23]

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

You sure about that? It’s nowhere near as overstaffed as it was last Fall and Winter.