Originally Posted by APCLurker (Post 1291406)

Exactly.

And the consequences of the actions I am seeing are:

-A seniority list that has been shrinking since the merger.

-Hiring that keeps slipping into the future, even though economic conditions are no materially worse now than during the TA sales-job.

-The loving embrace of codesharing.

Speaking of which, had a first-hand look at codesharing as it relates to our jobs: someone I know had a trip for work to western Canada. Delta ticket, from one of our hubs. 4 legs of flying, roughly 3500 miles traveled. Not once did they set foot on a Delta mainline aircraft.

-Backwards movement since the merger that myself and many others are experiencing. After this AE (backwards another @9 spots), and if crew resources does what they are saying in my category on the next AE, I am looking at the potential of being bumped off a relatively junior narrowbody (along with the paycut) over 11 years after hired.

-Cry for help on the slot swap followed by an initial 90% RJ's. And to those that say "it's less now." OK, what is that 90% rj allocation of flights down to now?


So you are exactly right Shiznit. Look at what is actually happening, and don't listen to the words and projections.

Originally Posted by iceman49 (Post 1291479)

Anderson ran an extremely lean operation at NWA (a good thing for profitability) , based on past history I would think that we will only hire when we absolutely have to and I would think that green slips will happen less and less.

Originally Posted by 80ktsClamp (Post 1291470)

Average daily seats comparison from Oct 08 to Oct 12 (16 largest DL cities on 2012):

Hub/ Oct08/ Oct12/ Chg/ Pct chg

ATL: 112,804/120,540/7,737/6.9%

DTW: 44,968/42,629/(2,339)/(5.2%)

MSP: 44,280/40,824/(3,456)/(7.8%)

SLC: 22,173/22,591/418/1.9%

LGA: 13,928/22,481/8,552/61.4%

JFK: 20,672/20,243/(429)/(2.1%)

LAX: 9,755/13,871/4,116/42.2%

MEM: 16,979/8,239/(8,740)/(51.5%)

CVG: 19,882/8,112/(11,771)/(59.2%)

MCO: 7,683/7,983/300/3.9%

BOS: 10,057/7,778/(2,279)/(22.7%)

NRT: 7,354/6,470/(885)/(12.0%)

LAS: 5,608/6,383/775/13.8%

DCA: 8,232/5,933/(2,299)/(27.9%)

SFO: 4,669/5,683/1,014/21.7%

SEA: 5,908/5,575/(333)/(5.6%)


Total system capacity down 9% compared to Oct 2008.

Originally Posted by Sink r8 (Post 1291477)

About this shortage of inexpensive pilots...

I saw an interesting post elsewhere that made me think about the "shortage", and the leverage it would produce for us. I've been thinking that, with the supply of pilots going down, our value would go up. After all, considering what we make now, who is going to want to risk the intial investment, and the uncertain outcome, of starting an airline pilot career?

Which answers my own question. You don't have to make the career worth the investment, you just need to remove the investment hurdle. What if, in lieu of a signing bonus, airlines provided free training in a 2-year program for hand-picked applicants? College requirement: waived. College debt: zero. Time to graduate: cut in half.

Negotiate something with the FAA to further loosen the 750-hour requirement under the excuse of needing to match the JAA Multi-Crew Pilot license, invest a few million in lobbying, say... 500 hours (more than the Europeans). Put in proper training notes so that people have a lengthy commitment, and you have a program.

Think that wouldn't attract some pretty bright people?

Depressing, I know, but it seems to me you could get pilots cheaper by investing heavily in the new pilots, not the old pilots. I wonder if the contract allows the company to have future pilots on the book that aren't pilots yet?

Originally Posted by Sink r8 (Post 1291481)

I don't disagree with you, but I assume you do see the contradiction in having less and less GS, and a leaner and leaner operation?

Originally Posted by shiznit (Post 1291463)

My original question is better paraphrased: "Why are you surprised by these AE's?

Originally Posted by Gunfighter (Post 1291482)

This is great data. Does it show only mainline seats, mainline + DCI, or any seat sold by Delta?

Originally Posted by Sink r8 (Post 1291477)

About this shortage of inexpensive pilots...

I saw an interesting post elsewhere that made me think about the "shortage", and the leverage it would produce for us. I've been thinking that, with the supply of pilots going down, our value would go up. After all, considering what we make now, who is going to want to risk the intial investment, and the uncertain outcome, of starting an airline pilot career?

Which answers my own question. You don't have to make the career worth the investment, you just need to remove the investment hurdle. What if, in lieu of a signing bonus, airlines provided free training in a 2-year program for hand-picked applicants? College requirement: waived. College debt: zero. Time to graduate: cut in half.

Negotiate something with the FAA to further loosen the 750-hour requirement under the excuse of needing to match the JAA Multi-Crew Pilot license, invest a few million in lobbying, say... 500 hours (more than the Europeans). Put in proper training notes so that people have a lengthy commitment, and you have a program.

Think that wouldn't attract some pretty bright people?

Depressing, I know, but it seems to me you could get pilots cheaper by investing heavily in the new pilots, not the old pilots. I wonder if the contract allows the company to have future pilots on the book that aren't pilots yet?

Originally Posted by cni187 (Post 1291486)

Lufthansa trains its own pilots. When I lived in Germany I dated a girl who was going to take their test and apply. She said they take people with no experience at all and train them.