That's the rumor. It would appear from this bid are not parking any 757's. I suspect some will however be parked and they will increase utilization on the others.

Johnson,

That same letter also says "The DC9 will be down 21% as we begin 2013 with 16 aircraft in scheduled service". So clearly they new the 9's were going to be in service in 2013.

Then I was lead to believe by crew resources that they were going to stay through summer 2014 and this was stated in a road show 2 weeks ago.

All I'm saying is that the pilot group deserves the truth with regards to growth and hiring. Don't give me some RA RA road show when the plan is to fund from with in and displace. The truth would earn much more of my respect. Which of course they could care less about since I am simply one of the masses.

Just a few random observations about the DC9 and it's derivatives and this AE:

• According to crew resources they cannot train more than 2 crews per month of the DC9. DC9 has been intentionally overstaffed due to this issue.
• They said in they would open with at least a 100 crews on the 717 and ended up being 145.
• 717 training will be limited to 19 crews per month. Thus 7.6 months to train all 145 crews. But some, maybe most, will be off the 88 and thus require less training.
• ATL DC9 has 65 As and 75 Bs, DTW has 51As and 58 Bs for a total of 249 pilots or 124.5 crews (but it's really not even there).
• The M88 is staffed at around 5.0 crews per jet, if that was the minimum for the 9 then you'd need 85 crews for 17 jets.
• If you had to train 85 crews at 2 crews per month it'd take 42 months and right now April 2013 - August 2014 would be 17 months.
• If you want to have the 9s for Summer 2014 but 100% of the 9 pilots bid off this AE and you had to replace them 2 crews per month, you'd only have 26 crews by next May or enough for 5 jets.
• ATL on this AE will be displacing a net total of 47 As and 127 Bs from every category except the 717. Meaning, DC9->777 is having a net displacement on both As and Bs.
• Per the AE system wide we are displacing 233 pilots excluding the 717 category. Meaning DC9->777 we are going to displace 233 pilots and then open the 717 with 290 slots.

I think what they've done is just keep it simple, open the 717, drain the 9 and base wide (ATL/DTW/MSP) force folks down to the 717 and just do it all at once.

To try and keep the 9 open for Summer 2014 is risky. Not to mention by the Summer of 2014 given the number of 717s and 9s, you'd need to hire. They can probably cover the capacity loss just fine. So why risk it? Just get rid of the 9 in early 2014.

Which makes no hiring until 2015 seem so much more plausible. Not to mention isn't that a contract year?

http://www.scoopempire.com/image.axd...arrotstick.jpg

My point was simply that the DC9 has been given several extensions. Regardless, I understand your point. I can't speak to your frustration, as I haven't experienced it. I've been here since 2008, & the alternative(s) for me would be the left seat of an RJ(working waaaay more for much less) or the street. So I'm happy where I'm at. But that's just me.

WRT what you heard at the roadshow, couldn't it be possible that what you were told was the desired plan but was shot down by higher powers? I guess it doesn't matter. We all want hiring and advancement, & I believe it will happen soon. Here's to hoping your left seat comes sooner then you expect. :)

I bet the 757s give them some capacity slop for sure. But when you total up the 7ER and displaced ATL 767, we're losing 30 seats. I know that's not a lot in that category but it's not equal or an increase.

Fig,

What blows my mind is not W2, but take home pay. My cash flow is within $600 per pay period of what I earned in 1988 (while still in college). The mid month check as a commuter turboprop captain remains larger than it's Delta equivalent, ten years later. Of course the end of the month check is significantly larger at Delta, offset by the cost of benefits and taxes which are larger during the mid month period.

Don't know if the regional LCA still make what they used to earn, but under the Delta contract post bankruptcy and theirs, a regional LCA out earned his equivalent at Delta by $20K to as much as $100K if they really hustled.

Useless information ... but interesting just for it's lack of volatility in a very volatile industry.

30 is a very significant number if you're in that 30.

Great graphic

Excellent analysis, I also feel that 2015 is much more likely for hiring, plus Sailing supports that we have more surplus pilots to fund future deliveries of 717 and 737's when he eludes to future draw downs on 757 which they delayed for the immediate retirement of the DC9's. I think the next bid could say something like this in paragraph 1 "Delta plans to resume the draw down of 757's which combined low retirement rate will provide adequate funding for the 2014 717 and 737 delivers, sorry guys maybe next year"

This is what bothers me. It appears that management will do anything to avoid Pilot hiring. And by anything I include:

Joint Ventures
Code-Shares
Alliances
DCI
And sadly (good choice of words), park aircraft are paid for, that apparently marketing wanted to deploy.

I understand that management wants to cut costs and pay off debt but it appears they are really, really against hiring more Pilots. Seems foolish to me when you take into fact that we will probably have to start hiring anyway, so why not do it on DAL terms and have the cream of the crop to pick from?

I guess it would contradict the mantra of "capacity restraint" if DAL were to announce hiring.


Scoop :confused: