Yes, for the love of all that is good and holy, please, please don't lump a few vocal loud mouths and their rotten attitudes in with the rest of the group. Unfortunatley there are always a few in every bunch.

 

Yeah I don't see the company doing/asking for this. I know it doesn't show it on this site since we don't have the aircraft on property at mainline, but we have mainline rates for the CRJ900. According to this site the 12 year Capt rate at Endeavor is $87/hr and the FO rate is $39/hr. Our rate is $135/hr and $92/hr.

We have always been told by management that pilot costs are not the reason the aircraft are not at mainline. The total cost of all the personnel and the benefits associated with them make it cost prohibitive.

 

Just saw on news delta had to divert into Jackson for an unruly pax. Something about an argument over reclining seat. Figured details would be here already...man we are slipping!
;-)

 

Are serious 747 MX problems really that frequent though? If BA can fly 6000 miles after fireballing an engine on takeoff (not that I condone such insanity, even from the world's premier aviators ) what is going on with our whales that are causing so many air returns?

 

I could buy into that theory if they coupled the parking announcement with an identical capacity announcement but they didn't. 1/4 of the whale fleet is being parked with nothing new coming outside the mysterious widebody RFP. That RFP will be mostly (or all) replacement for ER's anyway, and on a negative pilot block hour ratio too. The RFP also contains potential 787's, but only if they win the bid, but we already have 787's for 2020 delivery

Meanwhile the JV balance is bad and getting worse with no intention to honor the contract. Meanwhile the great ER purge continues and while we split a dwindiling percentage of the US-AMS/CDG bock hours/ESK's, the once direct markets that now connect on them stop counting our share as soon as the pax transfer in their hubs.

If your theory were the case, they would have needed to immediately announce 5 or 6 growth 777's (or even more 330's, etc) for almost immediate delivery. Instead we continue to shrink our already anemic widebody fleet and the only definite plans in the upcoming RFP will be replacing more ER's with fewer 330's or equivalent.

I find it hard to believe that we were sitting 4 whales fat on underutilized system block hours all along and they just suddenly flexed up utilization on existing airframes to fund it. Even if that's the case, I doubt it could be credibly argued that the remaining 12 whales worth of lift are as well. If so, we would have gotten rid of them years ago.

 

Not sure what you mean, but we have existing payrates for their large equipment, as well as all of our work rules and other benefits. I don't think it would cause much of a problem at all in recruitment. Especially with a nice *affordable* raise attatched across the board, amirite?

By that logic, let's outsource all narrowbodies, that way we can be an all widebody airline and second year pilot pay would go way up!

 

Gloopy,

Agreed that the timing was unfortunate. It would have been better to put the 747 retirement in about paragraph three of a letter on the widebody RFP selection.

During the winter we do have the capacity to flex up. Of course by the time the 747 pilots are displaced, it will be spring again. Their decision on the AE forced their hand into making an impolitic announcement.

Rumors are the Widebody RFP will contain growth. We shall see.

 

I dug down to the bottom of this. Bottom line is the decision is made above the Flight Operations management that we deal with. Our management executes the flying plan they are given.

Our management understands even less about the small jet cost structure than your average new hire who came from one of these carriers.

It isn't that Delta Flight Operations management is trying to obsfucate, they just don't know because it is not in their chain of command to know. It would be akin to asking a F15 driver how the reactor machinery on an aircraft carrier works ... you will probably get an answer & the answer will be incorrect.

Our airplanes are serviced by the exact same gate agents and rampers as DCI jets are. There is no difference in these costs. Further, we could staff Delta with DCI flight attendants if Delta wanted to do so. They have no union and no scope.

 

Jackson-ville. If it were Jackson there would be a plaintiff attorney feeding frenzy. There is not much chum since BP decided to try to hang on to solvency.

Tuesday, September 02, 2014 11:52 a.m. EDT
By Daniel Wallis

(Reuters) - An argument over leg room and reclining seats forced a Florida-bound flight from New York to divert to a different airport late on Monday, the third such incident of a midair disruption caused by passengers in about a week.

Delta Air Lines said that "out of an abundance of caution" the captain of Flight 2370 from New York La Guardia to West Palm Beach chose to land instead at the closest airport, Jacksonville, where local law enforcement removed one passenger.

It did not elaborate on the "disruption," but a witness told Jacksonville TV station WJXT TV-4 that an argument broke out during the flight between one woman who wanted to recline her seat and another in the row behind who wanted to sleep while resting on her tray table.

The witness said one of the women became loud and abusive when a flight attendant was called.

The aircraft later flew on to West Palm Beach where it landed shortly after 11 p.m., a couple of hours late. Delta representatives did not immediately return a call for comment.

The latest incident came just five days after an American Airlines flight to Paris from Miami was diverted to Boston following an argument between passengers over a reclining seat.

In that case, a 60-year-old Frenchman was subdued by plainclothes U.S. air marshals and charged in federal court with interfering with flight crew members, prosecutors said.

Just days before that, a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Denver on Aug. 24 had to be diverted to Chicago due to an argument between passengers over a device that stops the seat in front from reclining.

The airline said one of those involved was using a Knee Defender, a small wedge-like gadget that clips to a tray table and forces the seat in front to stay upright. Many carriers, including United, ban the use of the device.

-0-0-

 

Bucking Bar,

I don't know when you were hired, however in my years here I know that this will never happen and the FA's DO have a pseudo union in ALPA. Just look the history of how they end up getting whatever we negotiate to some extent. Profit sharing was one.