Make sure you go in the girls bathroom and sing with them, too!

https://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/1...7XL5RnA1A2.jpg

That was nice of the Oakland Raiders to bring back former stars and Coach John Madden for recognition at half time.

Problem is, they're former NFL stars.

They tracked their paths to mid field.

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/temp3-43.png

eventually they put the cheerleaders to use to set up a path to follow.

Pay banding would certainly help, but so is going to all F/O and DGS instructors.

Just after the merger I was talking to one of our (DL south) CP's about the merger, the differences, what was going to chage, stay the same, etc. and he said to me, "NW has over 400 SLI, Captain Instructors! That's the first thing that's going to change!"

Delta South has been using F/O's and DGS (retired pilots) for instructors since about 2002. I don't like it, but it is what it is; a concession we gave the company, "To Survive" after 9-11.

So you've all seen what's happened since 2008. MSP training is now in ATL, and I'm guessing there are very few "Line Captain" instructors left. That means 400 NW Capt's came back to the line. That's 400 pilots we didn't need to hire. Some of them were probably replaced by retired instructors, the rest by F/O's.

Sniff Sniff...What's that smell??

Synergy! :rolleyes:

Ten,

Everything is relative. These are boom times compared to the career some of the 2000 and 2001 hires have had so far.

Mainline is growing. DCI is shrinking. Yes, more 76 Jets blows, but we voted on this last summer. We have contractual ratios that must be met to be bring them on line.

No projected hiring in 2013 is a bummer, but in 2002 we were furloughing over 50 a month and eventually furloughed over 1000 while DCI hired tons of pilots. Now that was some downward movement.

So while I, like most other Pilots would love to hire in 2013, we probably will not, but the sky is not falling because of this RJ order.

Scoop

Started off well enough here, Buzz, but then you made a mess of it with your patronizing tone which generally indicates a lack of confidence in your own case. Sorry, I don't live here, and missed two days worth of posts.

I agree, I do no believe we will hire next year either. With only 500-600 retirements in next 5 years it looks pretty dismal.

Richard is good...but he's not the President of Europe.

Until Europe's economy recovers, I don't see a whole lot of reason to fly there, daily, to every city in Europe, for $149, with fuel at $100/bbl.

In 1992, just after we bought Pan Am, I was laying over with some Pan Am guys. They could not believe Delta bought their Europe routes! They told me:

"That's what put us into Bankruptcy! Everyone knows the real money is in South America!"

No one is saying 9000 pilots in 2013. And even if its not as low as 9000, we're 1000 or so down from the merger and still shrinking with the company saying no hiring for at least a year, maybe more and AS and HI growing. And the massive assault on transatlantic flying by the ponzi scheme foreign carriers has just started.

I see DL as a potential 800lb gorilla and industry dominator. But for that to happen, at some point we're going to have to stop the endless capacity retreat and get down and dirty and win. That will cost some quarterly numbers for a while though. So far we continue to shrink to profitability and clearly that is not sustainable.

Slowly over time, not all in 2013. And at the rate we're going, unfortunately I'd expect at least some contractual relief will be granted if necessary. It takes a while to stop a freight train and then turn it in the other direction. We're still on the fast track to shrinkage and shoveling more coal onto the fire. 1000 or so down from the merger and we're still supposedly fat, and we're still shrinking. If the 717 was truly the catalyst for growth (or even partial merger level restoration) then hiring would be imminent. Instead we're told we're fat and no hiring for at least another year. Oh and here come the fantasy land foreign carriers with their zillion super widebodies on order counting on us to gift them capacity to preserve margins.