I do too. Within reason and IAW the pending realities of course. But I see very little risk in DL over extending into China anyway even if we wanted to. Even a handful of additional transpac flights for us would open a lot of market share and revenue, not to mention pilot block hours. :D

As the numerous foreign ponzi scheme airlines scramble to find a place for their insane order books to go, DL will for a while face completely irrational competition. So far we have shown we will turn tail and run, gifting capacity relief to others. Eventually we will have to actually compete and win, even if it means a short term cost. More importantly, I hope the JV's we enter into protect us from the future rationalization of what is going to be massive over capacity based on paper tiger fantasy/never ending exponential growth projections that can't possibly materialize.

But there definately is room to grow there and I hope we do. And I hope we are prepared to defend what we have from the megalomaniacal "Legends of Farnborough" Tim Clarks of the world. There sure are a lot of them these days.

As for the citizenship issue, not only can that easilly be done in a way that the other nation never formally finds out about it, but many nations have either birthright or bloodline citizenship rights that mean you qualify for life even if you never apply. So a child from one country can either be a citizen, or easily have the ability to be one, of another nation and the first nation in question can't do anything about it because it either doesn't officially know or there is nothing to officially know (yet). I can get citizenship from an EU nation anytime I want to get the mountain of paperwork together. Don't need it, don't want it, don't intend to get it. So I'm not a "dual citizen" but easilly could be. There are many, many millions in the same position.

Our grossly misinterpreted "birthright" citizenship makes us a magnet for rampant abuse and our own government is powerless even to preempt it before it happens as people will just claim assylum, overstay a visa or even come over for some sham of an excuse like "water birthing with dolphins" in Hawaii (cause there's no dolphins where they come from :rolleyes:) and ICE has no choice but to let them in even though its obvious what's going on. Drop a kid and that kid has citizenship rights for life. The parents don't have to apply for it immediately, and even if they do its not like we're going to contact their home country to inform them of their child's status.

Dual (or more) citizenship is very common and few nations have the wherewithal to know or care enough to stop it or even look into it. Even nations that don't recognize it or even permit it are usually unable to do anything for situations where someone never purposefully pursued it (took an oath, etc). So for those who get it through birth or bloodline, there's really nothing they can do.

Are there any good rumors or info on any new international routes to Asia, Africa or Europe for summer 2013?

I would say the only people allowed to hire and fire would be the pilots allowed to elect them. After all, you don't want any other LEC member firing your rep anymore than allowing LEC members fire the MEC Chairman you elected.

A stalemate is not always a bad thing either. You just have to temper it. Maybe a super majority of the Reps always over rules the MEC Chairman?

Really you need a third party. Maybe you elect a base rep like a Senate (maybe pilot elected or LEC rep elected), category reps based like the House based upon the number of pilots in a given seat in the base (A or B) and an elected by the pilot MEC Rep. And everybody always seems against a party system, I love a party system where you can say that party believes in what I believe and vote a straight ticket.

Just a thought.

But going back to the conversation about the supremacy of majority rules vs the right of the individual, see Lincoln-Douglas debates 1858. It's interesting stuff and compelling on both sides. But that the end of the day, they still got to elect their President, their House of Representative and have a say in their Senator. Our government system is a rather smart way to handle this because it allows the electorate to have pendulum swings without losing control. A system that prevents that for the good of the masses and has an unelected few that determine what's best with significant roadblocks to change is not in my view true self governance.

Deleted sorry duplicate post.

Not sure about others in the region but for Emirates, O&D traffic is only 15% of their business.

[QUOTE=forgot to bid;1261015]Well, that didn't take long...

[quote]Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to "AA-" from "AA," citing its opinion that quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve would hurt the U.S. economy and the country's credit quality.
http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Section..._skies_200.jpgThe Fed on Thursday said it would pump $40 billion into the U.S. economy each month until it saw a sustained upturn in the weak jobs market. (Read more: Fed's 'QE Infinity' — Four Things That Could Go Wrong)In its downgrade, the firm said that issuing more currency and depressing interest rates through purchasing mortgage-backed securities does little to raise the U.S.'s real gross domestic product, but reduces the value of the dollar.
In turn, this increases the cost of commodities, which will pressure the profitability of businesses and increase the costs of consumers thereby reducing consumer purchasing power, the firm said.
In April, Egan-Jones cuts the U.S. credit rating to "AA" from "AA+" with a negative watch, citing a lack of progress in cutting the mounting federal debt.
Moody's Investors Service [MCO 43.82 http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/CNBC_Im...tchlist_up.gif 0.07 (+0.16%) http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/CNBC_Im...ltime_icon.gif] currently rates the United States Aaa, Fitch rates the country AAA, and Standard & Poor's rates the country AA-plus. All three of those ratings have a negative outlook.This is where simple math shows how ineffective this will be. The US Economy is 14 Trillion, the US Government Budget is 4 Trillion and the Fed is going to "stimulate" (read inflate and dilute the dollar) by $40 Billion a month - not much and the reason it hasn't worked in the past and won't work this time.

Now I'm the one with the short time to reply.



So we're going to quibble on the definition of "is", Mr. Clinton? Fine. You don't understand the governance structure on which ALPA works. The MEC (collected local council reps) are the governing body. We have 19 of those reps at Delta. There are various policy methodologies (some senatorial, some roll call based) by which they exercise that power. They elect the MEC Chair - he works to execute their collective will. You elect the Reps, they elect their Chair. To recall the Chair, you must get a 2/3 majority of reps or a majority of reps and a roll call majority.



So you use an example of a Rep whose point of view was in the minority. The TA ratified 14-5 on the MEC. 94% of the pilots voted and ratified the TA by 62%-38%. Every single base voted in favor of the agreement.


What I'm reading is that you have a problem with majority rule.


But if you're serious, you'd find pilots in local bases who would recall reps that you believe "are the problem." You only need 10 reps and a majority of the roll call votes to make that happen. I have provided examples of it being done at least twice on our property.

You also have the option of starting a change to the policy manual and ALPA C&BL. If you're serious about change, start the process. We'll get a lot more debate (good) and you'll see if your opinion is in the majority.

btw, do you still support DPA?

I was referring more to the massive about of WBs they've ordered, and how they won't be able to use them all.

Just how do you get "a complicit MEC?" That is the crux of the issue. FtB's argument presupposes that a majority of LEC reps can't think independently and don't understand the structure with which the pilots have entrusted them.

Oh, you'd also have to have a complicit negotiating committee. They're elected by the MEC as well.