Good posts folks and thanks for the reasoned replies.

IMHO the black helicopter stuff are the various theories that Lee Moak is purposely engaged in the creation of an alter ego which will be merged (to the satisfaction of unity hawks like me) at the cost of something near Pinnacle book on our new Delta small jet fleet. Something like that would be the perfect 100 seat answer and I would send money for a Brass Statute in his honor. But I think my money is safe .... I think as far as this goes is cheaper, better, outsourcing in more capable airplanes.

 

It's always nice to come to this thread to get good info from the guys that have been through this. Why the sell off in 2010, only to wholly own another regional now? I understand this whole bankruptcy of Pinnacle was a cost reset. But couldn't the reset occur without becoming wholly owned again by Delta? It's pocket change in Delta's eye to invest in Pinnacle. But why Pinnacle? Why now? Maybe I'm reading too much into this like others have said.

 

If hating on 80 is right, I don't want to be wrong.

 

Wait, I think I butchered that quote.

This is why I talking pictures.

 

The hardest part will be turning around ALPA. We need ALPA to get the job done. We have some truly excellent minds in our association, many of whom are afraid to stand up for fear of being marginalized. I give these people credit for being tremendously astute at getting things done for pilots. Generally, we negotiate to:

• Stop agreeing to further outsourcing
• Sunset outsourcing agreements
• Fight for a requirement that ALPA members perform any outsourced flying
• Fight for mergers ... Delta numbers for Delta flying
• Be pragmatic, reasonable, but never forget our goals

and despite my rants, I think contract 2012 was a small step in the right direction ... but I'll be complaining about outsourcing as long as I am part of a labor group.

... and that's my strike issue.

 

No not right, you changed the context of his meaning. His numbers were presented by the company and voted on by the Delta pilots. After a passage by the Delta pilots the numbers change. Your context leads one to believe the numbers were soft and can be changed under a blanket of secrecy or just desire.

 

I agree our bottom end scope may be a small step in the right direction. I am curious what your thought are on our top end scope.

 

Don't know if its what your looking for, but I know a few people with large collections that buy a dedicated external hard drive for music. (you can get a 1Tb on sale for about 60 bucks) Load up what your computer can hold and when its time to change it up, pull the hard drive off the shelf and file transfer.

 

It is not unlike the oil refinery ... an experiment in vertical integration and labor.

SkyWest is not really a player in the race to the bottom. Pinnacle's somewhat ballistic trajectory came from underbidding the flying, losing their butts, then entering bankruptcy. While GoJets participated, SkyWest mostly sat on the sidelines and worked their play book to diversify their revenue base.

Also, Northwest has a very close relationship with Pinnacle. Prior to the bankruptcy Delta was already doing side deals to compensate Pinnacle pilots contractual gains. I don't understand that relationship, but clearly it exists (I can find the news articles if you're interested).

From what I am hearing Pinnacle will be Delta without Delta pilots. This experiment has been played before at ASA, but Delta has more capability now than it had then. There are a lot of RJ centric resources left over from Comair (World's largest CF-34 engine shop outside of GE if I am not mistaken) and the same network capability that facilitated our merger enables virtualization of an airline like Pinnacle easy.

 

IMHO ALPA does a better job on our top end scope and we lead the industry in our JV language and capacity sharing arrangements. In as much as our t production balances are "inclusive scope" I like the model.

The execution is strained after the Admin agreed to an expansion of the measurement window to three years with a one year cure. Everyone seems to agree a one year window allows for seasonal adjustments while being effective as a job protection device. However, I get what our MEC was thinking with the benefits of the Alitalia addition which would increase our flying.

It is frustrating that there seems to be no plan to restore our shortfall in the AF/KLM JV. However, our MEC is aware of the issue and not dodging it. They seem to be holding their fire waiting for the right targeting solution. There are a lot of theories on what that solution might be ... we're obviously going to have to figure out the Virgin Atlantic piece.