FlyinPiker

Now that I think about it they might have to show their hand a little bit on in regards to the narrow body fleets that they displace into.

I would imagine they would only displace people into aircraft/base combinations that are going to survive SOC.

Those that might be on the chopping block (SLC & CVG -88/90) will probably stay the same.

johnso29

I'm glad they now have time to focus on the important stuff.

johnso29

Not once Phase III starts. Not as hard anyway.

iceman49

Would think that the empty flights have more to do with the economy vs the product.

iceman49

Have the FO's started carrying the FOM yet?

iceman49

Still lots of issues with the retrofit ones, the 78 was going to have the EFB....but the problem will be the IT support. The North side looked at ship sets...but the overall cost would have still been close to the individual subscription.

Denny Crane

Anyone interested in managements take right now on furloughs ought to listen to the Flt Ops code-a-phone.
Excerpts from the Delta flight operations code-a-phone:

Now I’d like to address some of the rumors that have been circulating about furloughs and displacements, particularly in light of the economic pressure our company is under. The global economic recession has resulted in industry passenger revenues declining nearly 20% in the first few months of the year compared to the same period last year. Cost pressures persist - mostly due to the rise in the price of jet fuel – which is up more than 20% since the start of the year, and travel demand continues to be soft in many markets due to the spread of the H1N1 virus. All of this is making for a tough business environment not only for us at Delta but for the entire industry. With regard to our staffing needs, we have been working very hard to ensure we are in a position to not only weather this storm but succeed.

To address the furlough rumors, in a memo back in June, Richard and Ed discussed the fact that with additional capacity reductions recently announced, we must reassess our staffing needs. They stated that our goal remains to avoid any involuntary furloughs of frontline employees. That goal is unchanged.

I have to be very candid with you, though. Make no mistake, due to the capacity reductions we have experienced, we are carrying excess pilots on a systemwide basis, and once the fall pulldown occurs, that excess will increase. However, taking into account the corporate goal of achieving SOC by year’s end, the likelihood of realigning some equipment throughout our bases next year, ensuring we are staffed to meet the summer flying demands for 2010 and Network’s indication that they would like to increase flying on the M88, A320, B737 and DC 9 fleets, I have made the decision to maintain our current systemwide pilot staffing levels and we will not furlough at this time.

After the final number of pilots who elect to participate in the PRIP is determined, we will be able to post a displacement bid in August which should allow us to balance our immediate staffing needs. So the next question is, “where will those displacements come from?” Most likely, capacity will be coming out of the 757 and 767 fleets but the specific numbers and bases of how many and where are still being evaluated. I can tell you that we do not intend to displace any more pilots than we have to. As I’ve said many times, with the continual flux in our network plans, we will wind our watches and take a deep breath before any decisions are made with respect to displacements or base realignments.

Here’s the bottom line: although we are currently carrying a surplus of pilots in our system and can never completely take furloughs off the table, we are not furloughing pilots at this time nor are we likely to in the near future. We will continue to evaluate the situation in light of the economic environment and the requirements being placed upon us by the Network schedule. You can expect though to see a bid with a number of surpluses posted in the early August time frame similar in magnitude to the one we posted earlier this year. Should anything change, we will let you know right away.

Ralphie

Thanks for posting that Denny. I suppose we've been just as close to the pink slip as ACL alluded to. Makes it sound like if someone farts too loudly that will be enough to tip the scales. Good times.

BalloonChaser

It's 2009 and we can't get a "tablet" PC to display a .BMP? Really?
You know you can buy a SONY eReader and subscribe to Reader Plates FAA/NACO Terminal Approach Procedures for your Electronic Book Reader and get downloadable terminal charts and such? What's a SONY E-Reader cost these days? - $400 bucks. Can't see the "too expensive" argument holding out for too much longer!?... It's way cheaper than JEPP subscriptions? - I used to order pubs at my old gig and the cost for a paper subscription was a lot more than this solution years ago!

FWIW
BTW - I didn't read the forum for a week - Holy cow -100 pages or so!? ACL you really stirred it up this time w/ the "good" news talk!?...

Denny Crane

Ralphie,

All I can say is "prepare for the worst and hope for the best!" Good luck to all of us.

Denny