BB, from that article you posted, the very last line says Pinacle has 141 fifty seat RJ's, is in bankruptcy and is 'financed by Delta'.

So are we to assume that all 141 of the CRJ200's at Pinacle will be parked, replaced all the 70 new 76 seaters?

Or will DL 'share the pain' with the others, except Sky West, of course. :rolleyes:

Could be. As SkyWest's CFO states "there probably isn't enough money in dual class RJ operation to offset the premature parking of 50 seaters" from a revenue perspective. Perhaps management is looking at this from a cost perspective and realizing they lose less money by parking them. I assume if the aircraft we own and lease are parked Bombardier has some sort of sweetheart deal to take them and convert them to Challenger 850's (which are sold out).


My read on the article I posted is that arrangements were not negotiated with our subcontractors prior to management making it's offers. Skywest thinks it has leverage to either get more for amending its contracts, or management might try to say that they will not be in compliance.

In the past nearly every scope violation has been negotiated away. Failure of Section 1 is seen as "bargaining leverage" instead of something to be enforced. We will have to see how this turns out. I am not saying our MEC will not enforce our contract. I am saying that past performance leaves me uncertain.

Again I stress, ALPA's evaluation of outsourcing is FLAWED. They fail to account for the costs of contract modifications, capital losses, crashes, passenger spill, redundant management structures and the inefficiencies created by scheduling 8 airlines on top of each other. In effect, Delta Connection is 10 different types with pilots who can not fly each others' airplanes (as well as most mechanics and all flight attendants). DCI's claimed efficiency is false because all of the costs are not accounted for.

In other news the CASM reported by the regional carriers was published this week by AW&ST. More evidence that on a CASM basis the CRJ900 is a better jet than the B717. I say, fly them here.

SKYW would be wise to play ball. The contracts have to be honored but nobody said we had to extend or offer new business to subcontractors who will not be cooperative.

I think it is posturing to try and secure a higher percentage of flying in the next round(1:1 instead of 1:2), but it could backfire badly if all the new flying goes to other carriers and DAL just eliminates SKYW as deals expire.

SKYW has been getting a little big for their britches, they wanted to buy Mesaba back when DAL put the CPZ and MSA up for sale, but DAL ended up loaning money to PNCL so PNCL could buy MSA instead, I think DAL is trying to de-leverage the control that is wielded by SKYW in the DCI world.

That would not surprise me. They aren't that good an airplane.

I am just hoping this is not another C2K moment where prior DCI commitments resulted in nearly instantaneous violation of Section 1.

SkyWest's money kept Delta from going Chapter 7 when they paid a pittance for ASA. The money was immediately used to keep Delta's agreements with American Express intact. Can you imagine Delta if it could not longer sell tickets using credit cards? That is the barrel SkyWest had us over.

It would be foolish to underestimate Jerry Atkin. He by far the smartest manager of any regional carrier and when put under pressure (as he is now) is when he is at his best.

What was the instantaneous C2K scope violation you refer too?

Skywest operates approximately 60 50-seat aircraft at DCI, so technically Delta can still meet it's target of 125 without Skywest's participation.

The brilliance of the scope section of our contract is that it is front loaded in the Delta pilots favor, if DAL can't comply, then they can't get more 76-seat aircraft, but all the other scope bennies, such as reducing the number of possible 76-seat aircraft, elimination of turboprop exemption, tightened domestic and international code share, global JV protections, improved furlough protection are still in our contract. Plus we get improved pay, sick leave, reserve pay etc.:)

While I'm thinking about it, is anybody in a decent bond fund where my money can grow better than the Fidelity money market?

Timbo,

Except for a drunken orgy of RJ purcahsing, and a failed attempt to appease the gods of frequency by such geniuses as Allen and Mullen, airplanes have continued to get bigger in the industry. What you're describing are pre-merger fleets. What you're not looking at is the resumption of the normal evolution towards bigger airplanes, in a an environment where airlines are big enough to offer frequency AND economical (large) airplanes. And those airlines can also use an alliance partner to cover two city pairs, each with a bigger plane, by splitting them, rather than having two smaller airplanes each competing on both routes.

Take a look at the evolution of the 737, and you'll see virtually none bought the -600. Everything gets stretched (and I don't just mean for us ageing pilots), from the 767, to the 757, to the 787. I wouldn't be surprised if we get 777-300's. Even the 717 is an upgauging proposition.

Airlines are big enough that they don't have to sacrifice economics to assure frequency, and so we're going back to bigger. That's the trend LBP would have us fail to capitalize on. Just look at it in terms of MD-90's coming in to the 88 fleet, and adding seats on the 88: they served to bump up the 88 to 90 pay. How would you argue that under LBP? There would be no basis for it, since a pilot is a pilot, and a plane is a plane.

No LBP for me, thanks.

You're exactly right. DCI carriers refusing to participate in the master plan are quickly excluded from the party. My guess is that we may see Skywest exit voluntarily in the late stage of our new PWA depending on what kind of deals they obtain in the LCC/AMR merger. If they can pick up their marbles and move, they will.

The other thing to remember is that typically the 50 seaters are just marginally profitable for the DCI carriers to operate themselves. No second run DCI contract provided margins much better than 1-3%. Any resistance from Slywest may result in their 50 fleet getting the Freedom treatment.

While Atkin may be smooth under pressure, it'll only last so long. Basically until his ship sinks. This article is just the first chink in the armor.

I guarantee that Delta would never have put their plan on our table without written consent from all the DCI carriers. They'd be nuts to do so. Or maybe they thought the TA wouldn't pass. Ha. Ooops.

I'm okay with most of what you posted but the article BB posted says Skywest, via themselves and Expressjet, operate 150 (90 and 60) 50 seaters.......

Denny