Last I checked, someone actually has to fly the airplanes. The regionals artificially shut off supply to the majors by upping their pay - Delta has less people coming in the door on Virginia Avenue looking for a job. In an environment where Kirby is looking to gain a competitive advantage by starving the other majors of pilots, seems to me that a pilot labor bidding war was just lit off on Friday.

For those that are saying don’t ask too much - you’ll get nothing (Sailing, Herk, et al), the paradigm that you have been use to has completely changed. It is a brave new world. The RLA is frankly not the limiting factor right now. The first mover from the management side (be it Delta, AA, or United) will have at least a marginal cost advantage over their competitors. All revenue is rising right now - not up to us to figure out what that the exact revenue number must be to foot the bill, but ticket prices are rising / have risen.

Bottom line - you want to run an airline, you need pilots to fly. The system is at its break point and the time advantage is now with us. Delta needs a deal - time to extract a solid one.

 

We have been hiring over 200 pilots a month for quite a while. That will continue into next summer. The only limiting factor is training throughout.

 

This right here is what is scary. The 2,000 pilots we hire in 2022 will gladly vote for a
$10k signing bonus when off probation


That’s a huge retro check for them. Same might be said for most 2021 hires.

This nonsense needs to just get done and without a serious show for unity, public fighting battles WITH us (post picketing), and serious pressure on EB and the gang, it’s an uphill battle… but it needs to come to a peaceful conclusion in the near term. This is shifting from a distraction to a movement.

 

I’m relatively new here and I think anything short of 30% DOS plus increases over the next few years may as well be not worth talking about. My family’s grocery bill has increased by 30%. Utilities are up about 30-40%. My property taxes have increased. 20% just about gets everyone here close to break even with what their dollar in 2019 could buy. So you figure at 30% DOS you’re looking at a realistic 10-12% raise?

$10,000 signing bonus. That’s nothing. $10,000 is a fart in the wind in today’s market.

 

I disagree. I'd wager most of us coming from the regionals, ULCC's and even 91/135 guys and gals know the game all too well and we are more than familiar with being overworked and underpaid. New hires at the regionals during contract negotiations are more of a threat because of their ignorance of how the industry works and are severely more prone to shiny jet syndrome. The only demographic that really falls in that category are career mil with no airline experience, and even then those that say "quit whining and vote yes, your job is easy, you make 6 figures and nobody cares" are usually the exception, not the rule.

 

Marginal tax brackets have not moved up as fast as inflation, so you are losing out on taxes. Until marginal tax brackets increase to catch up with inflation a 26% raise is only 20% more spendable cash to cover your expenses. *assumes 24% marginal tax bracket

 

I wasn't aware that the NMB was required to sign off on our asks.

By your logic, all it would take would be a mediator that was a fan of the company position on all items and we might as well just accept what they deign to give us.

 

Not trying to turn this into a mil vs civ urination match, but I’m not sure why you’d think that’s true when they are throwing $35K per year bonuses at mil pilots who are telling them to pound sand.

 

Interesting that you don’t see those new rates at the regionals changing the equation… You said it yourself - those rates are for retention at the regionals. If pilots are not leaving the regionals, where does the next round of 200 show up to interview at Delta from?

You don’t seem to believe the retention contracts will work at the regionals. I do, which leaves Delta at a loss to fill those 200 positions a month. Thus - a pilot labor bidding war has begun.

 

Delta has 900 pilots in the pool and is still turning down qualified candidates and it’s still difficult to get a interview. We are also going to cut hiring in half sometime early next year. If the temporary pay at regionals stops one pilot from applying at Delta I would be surprised and we certainly would not want to hire that guy because he would be almost brain dead.