August 2014





Delta may start direct flights to Kenya



Delta Air Lines could become the first airline with direct flights from Kenya to the US according to the African country's transport minister.

"Definitely Delta will be the airline to start, we are working with them and regulators more closely this time around to secure all the requirements," transport minister Michael Kamau said.

Delta put plans for Kenya flights on hold in 2009 after the US government refused to grant US carriers permission due to security concerns.

Delta had drawn up plans to fly from Atlanta to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi via Senegal.

The minister also said Kenya Airways also wants to fly direct to the US.

The carrier is increasing its fleet size and took delivery of its third 787-800 Dreamliner airplane this month with six more on order.

Outgoing Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni had said it would hold off buying more Boeing aircraft until the US government grants the airline permission to operate direct flights.


Friday, August 15, 2014

Investors don't care if you are proud, they care if your pay affects profitibility and they care about labor peace. The whole point of the visit to New York was to promote labor peace because Wall St. Values that. Moak seems to think healthy profitable companies will do well in negotiations and is using his position to promote airline health...or at least the part he represents.

I tend to agree with his strategy since it costs absolutely nothing. I don't think the DALPA negotiating committee will go along with whatever the company proposes because the former ALPA President promised Wall St. the pilots wouldn't be a problem. As a matter of fact, I think promoting labor peace is leverage because it matters more to the company than it does to us.

I misunderstood your opposition to Moak talking to investors. I thought you were advocating a hard line stance. It appears you advocate silence. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

The disciples are being very quiet. Must be quite the conference call to get their talking points straight.

You can only "grieve" or "monetize" the difference between actual EASKs (right now 46.8%) and the lower PWA limit of 48.5%. That's not really great.

With MOU 14, the SME expected us to gain 6-7 daily roundtrips by the end of the agreement.

I would much rather see an effort to make it right and have Delta pilots gain additional wide body flying, than to somehow monetize the difference between actual and the lower limit...

To me, the opportunity is to have the company live up to the standards it has been claiming in public. Honesty integrity Respect.
It starts by keeping promises made and making it right.

YMMV

Cheers
George

simulator after military leave
 

Does anyone know how the pay works if Delta had to drop one of your trips to give you recency? I'm coming back from two months on mil leave, and go right into a four day trip. My recency will be expired, so I will obviously need to go to the SIM instead of fly the trip. Do I get paid the value of the trip, or is it dropped and I only get training pay for what I do at the SIM?

I don't disagree George, but you're making an assumption that the company wants to live up to the contract they signed. They do not. In fact, they are purposely breaking it to see if we have the guts to defend our language. For some reason, the company wants to find this out, and in my opinion, they want the pilots to see it as well. They want us to see that our contract is their for us only when management says it's there for us. Whether we will stand up to them is an open question.

Carl

I'm with you, George. I really want the company to do the right thing and live up to the values it espouses and we live by.

It appears, sadly, the company only adheres to those values when it's cost-effective or publicity-savvy to do so.

The JV provision in our contract is neither. There is very little PR leverage for us in this relatively obscure and complex provision. If the comany was inclined to honor its agreement, it would have done so by now. We will have to expend negotiating capital just to enforce our contract. I think it was you or Carl who observed that this is why the comany wanted the 3-year deal for C12.

All we have to play is the "goodwill" card. But RA feels he has that in the bag no matter what he does. Moak's ill-advised comments, even if "misrepresented," as his supporters claim, lend further credence to the notion that management does pretty much whatever it wants...without meaningful blowback from "our" "union."

Normally, when they drop a trip for recency, you do NOT get paid for the trip, but paid for the sim. If you can get into the sim before they've dropped the trip, you should be OK.

There may be some kind of exclusion for Mil Leave returnees, call your Rep and ask him, or wait until Monday and call the DALPA office, or call the sim scheduler, see if they can get you into the box for a quick recency ride.

What was it Richard said?

"Labor risk has been taken off the table..."

So there you go! :rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Alan Shore;1706258]We need not only cash--and a punitive lump sum I might add, that specifically addresses the company's violation--but staffing of categories as if the company were in compliance. There needs to be an AE with openings posted, and under the reason for the openings that you always see ("increase in flying", "retirements" etc) it should be something like "JV staffing requirements."

If that means a category is overstaffed, then so be it. The company agreed to the language as much as we did.