What did we upguage the route from? It's been a 7er almost all the time. It's a 7er today and has been for a while. 3 years ago we had two marketing guys on the IST flight going over to talk to the Turks. They stated the route was on the bubble then because it was mostly low yield cruise ship traffic. I am surprised it lasted this long.
We have tried over and over to make Berlin work. There have been at least 3 different attempts over the last 20 years to fly it nonstop. In addition we tried one stops with another city such as Warsaw and could not make it work. The last non stop attempt was subsidized by Berlin. When that stopped so did the route. There was virtually no business travel to support the flight.

I don't recall ever stating we would hire this year. It is however still being considered. I read SD's memo. I guess you are not aware he is the VP of flight ops. He has his agenda. The memo said we might hire depending on about five varibles. I am really shocked so many on here have not read so much of what they post about.

We all read it. Doesnt change that it was a very low attempt at selling the TA.

Mentor? What's that program?

That is exactly right. The 717's were going to come anyway. Most of us are now basically counting on no career progression, with or without C2012. I had to analyze the deal on what it was without 717's and that was:

• A raise in a lousy economic environment
• Improvements in reserve pay
• Returning flying to mainline
• Slightly improved JV language

On that basis, my vote went yes, then no at the last minute. However, I'll defend my not counted yes vote and state unequivocally that I think our Reps did a good job.

For an 07-08 Delta hire, the new Delta is being an actor in a zombie movie that did well at the box office. We'll have a job, but we will be running for our lives the whole time. We just hope the sequel doesn't begin with reserve in a place where it snows all the time. Every one knows the action scenes are worse when it is cold outside.

There are about 40 people that are in the new hire mentor program. It's outlined in the FOM. Each newhire is assigned a mentor to assist them with questions they may have and to help them deal with issues that may arise.

If you're one of them I hope you're nicer in person than in your screen persona.

I'm only mean to the kool-aid patrol. :) You might be missing a lot of sarcasm that's thickly in there a lot, too.

IST was on the 764 in 2010 and the 330 in 2011 summers. ER in the winter. Not sure about this summer though. And unlike many destinations, it continued throughout the winter months, albeit on a reduced weekly frequency. Probably not a lot of cruise traffic in December. I do think Turkish Air's recent expansion has really hurt yields in that market. But SD's statement makes it sound as if we are dropping IST all together, not just suspending it for the winter. Is that not the case?

Berlin... it's a strange one. We can make Dusseldorf and Stuttgart pay, but not Berlin? The largest city in Germany? I'd think there is business traffic there, maybe we just haven't figured out how to sell it. And there too, Air Berlin flooded that market with seats. They're not doing all that well I hear.

One thing for sure, we are feeding passengers to Air France/KLM in ever larger numbers now as we increase gauge on the hub to hub flights. Which probably helps their bottom line in these lean times.

I am %100 certain that Clamp is a hell of a guy.

I think his problem is being told "Only we have all the facts, and even if we told you, which we won't, only we are smart enough to understand what's going on, so just vote yes, then sit in the corner, shut up and color".

Fortunately, that's a trait that many of us share, and we're not too shy about telling those who espouse that, um, particular philosophy, to bugger off.

I'm the nicest guy in the world, kind to old ladies and small animals alike, but don't **** on my head, and tell me it's raining.


Nu