Even with a west coast narrow body base the East is still going to be where most of the movement happens. There are a large number of senior west guys commuting to eastern bases. They will go back west and the movement will come in the East. If your locked into the west UAL is a better choices they are a west coast airline and Delta is east coast.

Anyone been released by scheduling for IOE before? I know they won't do it before 1900 the day before, but do they call you? You call them? LCP call you? Thanks

I understand. But I work at Delta already.

If you want to live in SLC long term I would head out there now. Interest rates are low and housing is going up. Get settled and commute until you can hold SLC. DTW has a lot of longer trips and if can snag some SLC layovers it can take some sting out of the commute. I would go for the bus or 737 so out of base pickups are a option.

Scheduling calls.

As a SLC guy I would say if you like being jr and staying junior come on over. I have been at Delta 14 years and am still in the bottom 50% on the 737. I have moved backward 21% in the category over the last 3 years and have never moved up a single number in any bid since spring of 2011. Most Jr capt in the base is a 5600ish. It looks like they are going to reduce the 767 FO's in SLC from 96 to 76 this November according to the staffing report, so I would imagine most of those guys will displace into the 73 and 320. For me I would expect upgrade to capt to be 7-10 years longer in SLC than NY, DTW or ATL. Depending on when you were hired that number could be reduced by a few years. I just flew with a capt who said that the average age capt in the 73 in SLC was 54 1/2 but I don't have any idea if that is true. Just recently the I was talking to regional chief pilot and he said he had been told that SLC was currently the right size and to not expect any future growth. Of course who knows, things change daily. So with all that said it is a choice to live out west, mountains vs money and seniority.

SWA non pilot costs are through the roof since they never went through Chapter 11.

IMO their nightmare has begun. Simply look at their on time performance, 10% behind us.

I believe they will have a long slow descent to bankruptcy that will take a decade.

That is true, and they have an ace in the hole.... bag fees. An instantaneous injection of huge amounts of cash to the bottom line. But, their growth potential vis-a-vis the big 3 is extremely limited. That is what is very interesting to me as an investor because you invest in business based on growth and risk (and growth potential). LUV has little risk overall because of that balance sheet, but their growth (potential) is anemic. the big 3 on the other hand, while having mountains of debt presently, are eating into that debt aggressively, and we all know how DAL will have it to $7B this year and $5B in 2016. And LUV's multiple is higher than DAL, so a basic examination of that would tell you that people are paying up to own LUV stock. Why I wonder? Is it the potential for the bag fees and that injection of cash flow? I have even thought about buying some deep in the money calls, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger on that (I did on AAL though. :cool:) It is interesting to say the least..... and I do not think BK is anywhere on their horizon.

Yes they are... but.... I think they believe they know that their clientele will bug out if they start charging those bag fees. I am sure it is a balancing act that keeps their head shed up at night. And if they do it, how do they unwind it?

I would think it is safe since we are about to spend a boatload of $$$ on a new terminal.