We have five thousand more pilots than we did a decade ago. Everyone always talks about being undermanned, but we’re actually just overextended. We are trying to do more flying than we’re manned for, which has happened when we had 12k pilots and could happen if/when we have 20k pilots.

Just remember that management doesn’t want to pay pilots to sit at home. But what you need to fly a reliable operation…is pilots getting paid to sit at home. Their head-in-the-sand decisions have simply changed what sitting at home getting paid now looks like - it’s more expensive than it should be, and it’s also less effective at covering flying.

Delta could slash capacity for July-August and salvage operational metrics, get paying customers where they paid to be and when they paid to be there. But they won’t.

It’s going to be brutal on our customers, and lucrative for the pilots. Oh well.

 

He put $2.6B into a near all-time high. And only us. Likely around $60/share. It is an investment in Delta’s long-term success. I’ll repeat again. No other airline on Earth has Delta’s upside potential. It’s combination of of dozens of years of development via x4 fortress hubs, debt strategy, fleet strategy, investment strategy, premium push, network, JV’s, industry-leading partners in the U.S., soft service, hard product, etc. everything. It can’t be replicated because the industry and supply-chain is too consolidated and too rigid for any of the US3 to ever change the dynamic of who is #1, 2, and 3 in profitability. It’s unprecedented how consolidated this industry is.

The only way the #1, 2, and 3 position is ever upset regarding profitability is via merger activity w/ no divestments upsetting market balance and/or WW3. Neither is going to happen.

TA’s will come and go and this upset will be corrected like every other one before it. Thats the one constant is things improve after they deteriorate- this isn’t indicative of a permanent trend.

 

120-130,000 of Delta’s passengers have had their flight cancelled in the past month. Historically very bad. But, over the same time period the other 15.3 million passengers are getting where they need to go early relative to the competition.

130,000/15.3M past month. How many of those 130,000 are fortress hub, CC/FF, and/or network captives that don’t have a choice? Even more so now that Spirit is gone.

 

We weren’t competing for Spirit’s passengers.

We don’t really have the competition at our hubs like the UA/AA fight in Chicago. Who knows what DFW would look like if we didn’t abandon it.

Our profit sharing has been better, our metrics have been better. So to counter your earlier point, this isn’t “peak” Delta.

 

Sure we were. “Basic Economy” was a direct response to the LCC/ULCC model. Similar price with bags, but better on-time performance.

 

No, they just wanted to fly Delta but cheaper.

That’s like saying a Porsche Boxster driver cross shopped with Honda.

 

I’m sorry buts it’s a complete embarassment that 130,000 people have had their plans blown up because we don’t have narrow body FOs in position that we should have hired a year ago. These people are your siblings, neighbors, parents, etc.

Delta is my Golden goose. It’s been good to me. I have a great job. But I demand accountability from flight ops leadership the same way that I will hold myself accountable every day I’m flying the line.

 

We cancelled PVG the other day, AMS twice on back to back days due to no FOs. There were probably dudes on X days that would have volunteered to fly, but why do that when the PB days are skunked

You really have a poor grasp of reality

 

Any PTC PUB update?

 

To be clear, Greg Abel is now the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and is calling the shots.

Warren Buffett already tried Delta, and soured on it. Abel could do the same thing next month.

What our resident kool-aid-mainlining cheerleader fails to understand is that public perception (and not his own feels) is the only thing that separates us from AA. Every cancellation, every bad passenger experience, puts a dent in the "premium" brand. It's under extreme duress, and unless it's addressed immediately, the revenue premium will dry up, the allure of the AmEx card will evaporate.
Spoiler alert: it won't be addressed.

Systematically/intentionally stealing money from their pilots sure isn't helping their cause.

There is no end in sight; at some point (and we may be there or at least close), the damage will reach critical mass. No amount of manifesting or gaslighting is going to help when this house of cards starts to fall.