I'm pretty sure that pin was sent to you in November 2000, quite a long time pre-bankruptcy.

Slowplay,

I did not claim C2K, or pilot pensions, were the hinge for bankruptcy, they were not. The fact is the "need to declare bankruptcy" was being somewhat openly discussed by former Delta management in early to mid 2000, well before C2K. Their guess as to when Delta would file was amazingly accurate.

Contract 2000 scope did not even last six months before being modified. I believe the ratio components were the first to be re-negotiated. This makes sense since the ratios would have required rapid mainline expansion just to remain in compliance with the RJ orders that were already booked in late 1999.

Management knew C2K would be modified very quickly. Anyone who expected Delta to take it's firm deliveries for RJ's knew that the 34%, 36% and 37% ratio limits were likely to be breached. After all, with 500+ aircraft on order or under contract it implies mainline would have needed a fleet three times that size to perform two thirds of the block hours ... did anyone expect a 1,500+ jet mainline fleet?

It is likely that Leo Mullin did not negotiate with any intention of honoring the agreement in it's entirety. The job protection provisions alone telegraph that message clearly ... and of course we well know the effect, with more than a thousand Delta pilots on the street while small jet subsidiaries of Delta Air Lines were junior manning Captains from new hire classes.

While contract 2000's failures resulted in my suspicion of ratios as an effective job protection device, those used in C2012 appear to have been much better thought out.

Thought the Whitlow letter was a result of a line pilot asking the question as to the safety of being on duty for x amount of hours as a result of being called out at the end of his rsv on call period. Has the same question being asked for international flying?

I'm holding the same pin in my hands right now and it was issued during the run-up to C2K, not post-bankruptcy. The 'Restoration' was in reference to the '96 contract.

Well... look who's back....

DAL Manning numbers
 

Current DAL manning for summer of 2013 at an ALV of 84 would have us "overmanned" by 400 Pilots. ALV will not be that high.

Summer 2014 would have us undermanned by 300. Hiring is around the corner felllas, the only question is how long until we turn the corner?

Scoop :)

George,

An excellent post!

You're a pretty well-informed guy and I'm guessing you saw the email that circulated last fall from an AA First Officer...

(For those who didn't read it: This First Officer, and the Captain he was flying with, did everything required by their job, but not one iota more. This email detailed how rapidly dysfunctional the operation became when pilots didn't step up and do what's necessary to keep things flowing. It was hugely ugly.)

When I read that email I thought of Delta's own operation and of all the things we do, on a daily basis, to keep the operation flowing relatively smoothly and mostly on time.

I firmly believe Delta management is blissfully unaware of all that we do. We sure as h*ll don't get thanked for it (much less compensated).

As far as this: "Operational Excellence memo wants us to stop "masking" the problems and let the data speak." My response would be: "Really?"

In theory maintenance write-ups should occur with equal frequency on flights from a hub to an out-station as on the return flights. Yet I'd bet a bunch of money (and I'm not a betting man) that the difference is staggering.

Do they really want us to write up discrepancies where they happen and highlight the gaping holes in maintenance coverage?

How did you come up with that, or more appropriately, what's the source of the info?

So will DL's new 14 hour international short call all be duty, or will those 14 hours, like now, be exempt from duty and the only duty counting will be the duty of the trip you get, even if its 1 minute prior to your 14 hour window?

Somewhere on the 4th floor, someone just read that and said:

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...uNkvFqEC8u-te_