Makes sense to me with the plan they have going forward. It has been the plan all along, people just wanted to argue it.

MD-90's will replace most of it. As we uptick the 757's in the desert will return and the 88's on current 757 routes will back fill the 9 flying. There is a plan and it makes sense.

Depends on your perspective I guess. Some will always be on the bottom no matter what is going on! :D

It ain't easy bein' green!

Slow, those are good points. I am guessing people are latching on the numbers I posted about SD's lounge chat. There was a lot being said in many different ways during the visit. I didn't think to pay attention to the difference you mentioned. My interpretation -- and this is strictly mine -- is that the 7% increase is over what network had planned earlier this year. Dickson said that network adjusts their numbers all the time. He didn't specifically say over what the 7% increase was or if he did, I didn't pay attention to it. He did say that with the increase, we would be properly staffed for the summer, so take that for what it is.

As for the airplanes, someone did ask if the fleet is shrinking or growing. Dickson, in a round about way without getting into number, said that the fleet would remain pretty much even. Yes, we're parking the -200s and the -30/40s, but we're still getting a few 777 and 737, plus at least another 9 or so MD90s. Plus we have the extra capacity sitting in the dessert. My interpretation of what BW said hinted that if the 7% increase comes to fruition, some of those airplanes would need to come back out of the desert.

As a bottom scraper, I hope we hire but nothing I heard made me think that. Like you said, if there is, it would be minimal. Now, there may be other dots that are out there that I haven't seen yet that could change that picture, but based strictly on what was said at the lounge visit, this is how I see things. I do feel that the chances of furloughs are greatly diminishing.

I wish someone else on this board was at the meeting to give their take on what they heard, even if it is to refute what I have written. Again, all this was just MY take on what was said. My interpretations could be way off base.

Ain't that the truth!

I like this pic but I am still looking for a better one! :o

I was told 7% YOY not a 7% bump for the summer traffic. In the end it really does not matter. It will matter if we hire, or if pink slips go out. That said, the exact quote that I was told is, "We are a lot closer to hiring than we are to furloughing." That says a lot without being to committed one way or another.

The plan a few weeks ago was a 2-3% increase YOY. RA stated that at the LCA meeting. Fact is that since that meeting the facts have changed. Slow knows that, he is just trying to put some sort of non-combustible fluid on a small fire before it gets out of hand. He also did it in a diplomatic way as well. (had another comment but why destroy a good thing) Slow, admitted what I see. A POSSIBLE need for hiring based upon a 7% YOY number.

Also, the 2009 to 2010 numbers for summer block hrs were about flat. We will have a lot of training going on outside of the shoulder months as well. That will also eat up a lot of manning that we would otherwise have. They would like to shut the school house down from April to Sept, but with this merger that is not going to be possible. That adds a need as well.

That's probably right. These lounge visits are fairly casual so the way information is presented is naturally vague. He said 7% increase and that's all I heard. It didn't dawn on me to ask "7% higher than what?" If you heard from another source that it's 7% YOY, than that's probably what SD was referring to. Again, I was listening to the gist, not the exact words.

Anybody know if my recall rights to the 320 are domicile specific? I was displaced from DTW 320B, so if there are openings in MSP 320B, but NOT DTW 320B, would my recall rights still give me first crack?

Of course there were quite a bit of MSP 320B displacements on the last AE, weren't there? 1234, you're a MSP 320B. Do you know how many there were?

Heyas,

All we need now is a nice 100 seat order announced, and things would be verging on interesting.

Nu

31. “Category” means the combination of a pilot’s position and base.

Definition of a "category" per PWA Section 2.