A lot of tickets are being given away. The yields are leveling out and we are seeing a little progress. We can only hope.

 

I hate the fact that we are reinforcing the idea that passengers should be able to fly for less than what it costs us to fly them there.

I realize that we keep our planes full and people employed, but I don't want people to get used to these cheap tickets.

 

Keeping planes full with out breaking even does nothing long term for the employee or the company. It makes our credit rating go down, our need for credit go up, our interest on the credit go up, our liquidity position go down, and the commitment of our revenue to interest payments go up. Basically it is a one way road if we do not come up with a sustainable business plan that pays people what they are worth, and provide what the customer expects for the service we provide.

We need to charge more, pay more and in the end the ridership will go down, some will lose their jobs, and as the customer is reeducated to the costs associated with this industry and what it means to use it, the jobs will come back, service will go up, and the wages of the industires employees will return.
It takes pain frist, and no one is willing to do that. Many airlines start with the notion of shrinking to profitability but other airlines either fall short of the capacity cuts or the price increases, bringing the whole gaggle down.
Until we can have rational pricing and expectations of the product the airline industry provides, and reeducate the consumer we will all just muddle along going to lower lows. We will be allowed to continue to the commerce of the world to continue, and the countless corporations that make a killing feeding of the airlines corpse.

This can be fixed many ways, and one way we the pilots can do this is to not play along with the lower low mentality and the need for paycuts et al. I am a student of economics and business forces. I understand the fact that there is elasticity of demand. I understand the need to cover static costs, and managers need to cut the variable costs. We happen to be one of the easiest ones to cut, but we must say enough is enough. We must make our bosses boss realize that we will negotiate what we are worth, and have expectations much like the customers we serve.

 

Probably a must read article for those interested and following the unionization effort for the merged NWA-DAL flight attendants and mechanics.

New Union Regulations at Delta - WSJ.com

 

September traffic down, load factors increased
System traffic numbers for September released today, including the Delta and Northwest operations, showed a decrease of 5.2% compared to September of last year on a 6.7% decrease in capacity, and the system load factor increased 1.4 points to 82.6%. For the domestic system, traffic decreased 3.3% year over year on a 3.9% decrease in capacity. The domestic load factor increased 0.5 points to 82%. For the international system, traffic decreased 7.8% year over year on a 10.5% decrease in capacity, and the load factor increased 2.5 points to 83.3%.

 

They're already used to cheap tickets. That ship has sailed man.

 

Just saw that Air India is putting seven 777s including three LRs up for lease. It wasn't long ago that we were actively looking for used 777s. While the economy is in the gutter and routes are being cut, I wonder if we would still consider these if the price was right and we are looking forward to the recovery?

 

The optimist says, heck yeah! The pessimist says, a) if we know about it Delta already knows about it and b) they'd be 744 replacements. But the optimist comes back and says maybe we will get them at the price we want after everyone else says no can do.

Strictly on a pilot staff level a 744 one for one swap with 777s is one thing but anything less than 1:1 is not cool for us. I still have hopes for the 747s at Delta despite the odds.

 

OT: Is your avatar what I think it is?
(F/O ejecting out of the plane)
LOL!

 

That is how I see it.

I think that should be standard equipment in the 88!