Neutral for the airline pans out for mainline growing by that much. That's how much lift is being lost at DCI.

Ok, I stand corrected. Some DCI carriers are getting it bad. However, their growth came to them at our expense (You, me and the DAL/NWA year 1999-2008 newhires).

My jealousy is towards Alaska and Hawaiian, they have been hiring leaps and bounds in this past few years all because of our generosity or lack of competition. Plus VA, KL, AF, GOL, AEROMexico etc are getting a majority share of our flying. Now, if there is a future plan to grow the snot out of mainline Delta, then I have been fooled. But from the looks of it, our fearless leader (RA) is extremely frugal and set on his way of creating Delta Virtual Airlines. I truly wish our union, could bring back the flying.

As far as the "75 more aircraft" for Delta mainline; we will have to wait and see. I was told, when I was hired, that I would be a 747-400 Captain by the time Im 38. Now? Im a happy, junior,bottom of the barrel FO. Believe me, one more merger can give you the 75 aircraft. But it will also give you more downward progression if it is with Alaska or HA.

I want the best for us (Delta and Pilots). I apologize for being so Gung-Ho but somebody needs to be.;)

TEN

Haven't seen anything posted about this:


Delta Buys 49 Used MD-90s to Control Costs [VIDEO]

If my memory serves, there was a connection carrier out of compliance with gross weight. DALPA was very anti-grievance filing with regard to that.

In fact, if memory serves, tried to squelch the DAL pilot(s) whistleblower(s).

So, in a ssdd way, I'm not holding my (DALPA cheerleader) breath.

Said company quickly changed the gross weights before anything concrete could be done.

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instanc...x/31430055.jpg

I miss when airplanes were airplanes and not pieces of metal with associated paperwork that could be changed on a whim to meet a contractual obligation.

Agreed... although the max takeoff, landing, and zero fuel weights changed to the upside on a number of mainline aircraft too with no mods done to the aircraft.

I was one of the people yelling about the ERJ gross weight issues... before anything could be proven they were changed. Awesome.

Very funny. :D

I am fully aware of what's happening in EU land. And its going to get worse. A lot worse. But we have been pulling down faster than AF and they have added super premium all cargo lift into our hub completely bypassing that part of the ESKM's in the already extremely liberal (for us) 3 year blank check balance window.

Some who have been keeping a close eye on this have surmised, and I have a hard time disagreeing with them on this, that once the company takes full advantage of the 3 year burden we have shouldered, it will be suddenly renegotiated/reset, you know, to acknowledge the new reality/economy/etc. Good for AF though. Srsly, good for them.

Also there is a lot of ponzi scheme lift coming to Europe from the fantasy land "Heros of Farnsborough" crack pipe growth model dual subsidized Gulf and Asian airlines. A lot of capacity. And you can bet they are betting we will blink first, especially if it means preserving quarterly margins.

Oh but the EU is so bad off. Liesure cliff. Well guess who isn't scared and is planting their flag on this one:

Press Release | Qatar Airways

And this is the tip of the iceberg on this one. Will we yield more capacity to them, and yield more of what's left to our european partners? Especially with another one about to join the "team"?

And there is a 100% chance a current LCC will go nuclear and get widebodies. Its a mater of time and I don't think that much time. A year to three, max. It doesn't matter if it won't work. There are a lot of business models out there that require endless growth. This will be where at least one, likely more, cornered rats will go to mine growth, counting on legacy airlines to yield to them to preserve company wide margins at any and all costs.

OK, cool. What about the 321NEO? What about replacing some 88's with 73-9's or 321's? Or using ER's on more and more domestic as we transition our pulldown of point to point trans Atlantic service to higher gauge frequency to EU superhubs?

I don't think we will be replacing any 90's for a while anyway. 88's though could start to be parked at anytime. Even if they got the glass mods. Which they now aren't getting it seems.

Yes. They will take over *some* markets previously served by large RJ's. Don't forget though that a lot of the RJ pulldown is coming from culling redundant RJ superhubs. The markets will be served, but by significantly lower frequency and lower over all net ASM's. We won't see hourly service to every small town from ATL, DTW, CVG, MEM, MSP and other hubs anymore. The 717 upgauging will only account for some of he RJ's parked. And some of the 717's will replace current 9 flying as well.

Some 717 lift will also replace currently larger gauge lift too though as we continue to dicipline our capacitai. 3 777's to replace 5 ER's...5 ER's to replace 9 320's...4 90's/737-900's to replace 5 88's and 5 88's replaced by 5 or 6 717's for net capacity shrinkage.

Throw in even a little bit of work rule "productivity" changes and another code share/JV or three and I just am not seeing how we will be a 12,500 pilot force in 5-10 years. Even 10,000 seems to be pushing it.

Not entirely sure what you mean by that.

Hey, I hope so. 9 months isn't that far off though. We're 1000 down post merger and still shrinking and the company is saying most likely no hiring for at least another year. And that's assuming things don't get worse economically. They will get worse (not Wiemar Republic or any doomsday hyperbole like that, but worse nonetheless) and competition will increase furiously over what it is today.

We are well on the trajectory for a 9000-10,000 pilot force, down over 2500 from the merger.