Airline Pilot Central Forums - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?

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Originally Posted by slowplay (Post 714516)

Your assertion that the deal is dead without our support isn't correct. It can be done without us, just as many other deals have been done without pilot labor involvement.

Not dead, but as you state below and in other posts, having the Skyteam Alliance of pilots on board is huge, and that alone adds value to the deal.

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We do bring value to the table, and if everything goes our way I expect we may be abe to extract some of that value. We are starting from behind in this deal, so we don't have the leverage that you may think we have. The US Government is protecting its own interests in Japan first. Our company may suffer for that. The Japanese are protecting their investment. Our company is currently a competitor to that investment. The Japanese are culturally a very loyal society. They have an existing deal with AMR, and that carries weight. AMR can accurately claim they've paid every dollar that they've ever owed a creditor. Delta and NWA can't, and that's a cultural disadvantage.

I agree that we have some disadvantages, but we also have some advantage. Skyteam and its network are huge. We already to a ton of connecting traffic though ATL from NRT to SA. It is the best way from what my Japanese friends tell me. Hence the reason we have Japanese speakers on many SA routes.
We are a competitor as you point out, but we(NWA) also have a long and loyal history with the Japanese government and people. We initially had Haneda slots and moved to NRT when it opened. I am sure that is an argument in this case too!

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APA is on record against ATI. Delta ALPA is on record as supporting SkyTeam and has a JV record to prove it. SkyTeam's bid is currently a far superior economic package, even without the up front investment and cash infusions.

It is and it will be topped. AMR is on record stating that it will top it.
Will we top it? Maybe. A lot is in play here. We have more to offer than Oneworld does, we both know that.

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The downside risks for Delta pilots in the combined Japan case are far greater than the upside potential. The Haneda access and "open skies" pieces are far more threatening than the JAL piece alone. In my view the same is true for AMR and APA pilots, but in a different priority. They can't afford to lose JAL, as One World would be relegated to a second tier alliance, but a Japanese version of "open skies" wouldn't hurt them nearly as badly as they're a bit player in Tokyo. UAL is in a pretty good place with ANA sown up no matter which way this goes.

There are other options to this deal. I do not see us getting shut out of Haneda and the other US airlines getting access. The JAL deal is better than much of the other possibilities, but the money side of things is up to the airlines and their management, not us. We will see how far this escalates. I am sure the Japanese are loving the money getting thrown their way.

I would like you to type without response to me or anyone else your position and the facts as you see them on the deal. I have stated some points that should be considered for the pilots, but in the end I agree 100% that getting this deal done is good for the pilots. A few extra cookies would be good for this group. Better yet if they are between Delta Management and us, and do not have anything to do with the Skyteam Alliance, Japanese Government, or JAL. That way they do not weigh on the deal as heavily. That was my suggestion. It is part of the game plan you asked me to lay out. In the end we must support it, but to what end is the question.

On a side note, have you ever though that me taking a conflicting tone was to get you to explain this on this board so that there was some information out there for our pilots to read? What you have typed is in effect exactly the way our MEC sees it. It is very important for this information and viewpoint to be explained to the pilots, prior to a deal being done. I would love to see an official document, but what you are doing on here is good for many of the pilots that read this. For that I thank you.