Originally Posted by gloopy

Sick time is for times you are sick. And sick means when you are unable to legally self certify to fly. That includes a ton of times when some 3rd party hatchet man won't always be able to "verify" your upset stomach or nausea or squirts or headache or sore back or whatever. Not all "sick" time is for an easily verifiable flu. And even an easily verifiable flu isn't easy to verify if you don't go bow before a suspicious and potentially hostile 3rd party during the peak of your symptoms.

This is a huge safety issue.

Not only that, the nonsense that the group being 3 years older should only account for 0.1% more sick leave is insane. Medical issues increase exponentially in your final 3 years, not a combines 0.1% increase. I suspect to get that fantasy number they took the average age of the entire group including all the new hires which drastically lowers the average.

In any case, this new policy is a huge assault on our ability to self certify and it WILL result in many, many more pilots flying sick and result in less safety in a supposed attempt to crack down on a handful of "abusers" who will likely continue to "abuse" it anyway because many of them already have the medical stuff already in place to call out whenever they want anyway and there's nothing anyone can do about that.

This is a horrible policy and reason enough to vote no.

Originally Posted by badflaps

I know the first thing I want to do is take a 737 to Europe. Should be a "non-revver's" dream.

Originally Posted by Carl Spackler

It's hard to judge man. Even with cargo, the 737-900ER is a very capable aircraft and could easily do the mission. The other good part is how much slower the airplane is. Since this TA only cares about aircraft block hours, the 737's smallness makes it cheaper for pilot costs, while its slowness helps out the block hour metric. The differential in speed alone could allow Delta to cut an entire flight out of the JV and still be good with the longer block hours produced by such a slow airplane.

For all those reasons the 737 is not only viable, it's very likely. If we kept the EASK metric, then this theory wouldn't make economic sense.

Carl

Originally Posted by Unity by Design

Delta to order 40 more 737-900ERs, add 20 E-190s to mainline fleet | Airframes content from ATWOnline

The 40 new 737-900ERs are in addition to 100 of the type already ordered by Delta. The aircraft will enter Delta’s fleet through 2019, replacing older narrowbodies.

Originally Posted by BenderRodriguez

Naaaaaaaah. 737s aren't gonna be replacing anything to any appreciable degree Europe-wise. That's silly and way over the top.

Originally Posted by DAL73n

+1 - the only way to really separate this from "Sick Leave" is to call it something else. If I'm feeling better from a cold (few symptoms) but I can't clear my ears - I won't fly - had a buddy of mine in the AF fly with some clogged up ears and was grounded for 6 months to let his busted eardrums heal.

Originally Posted by Denny Crane

Yes and the 737-900ers were noted as replacement aircraft in the announcement by Delta. What's your point?

Denny

Originally Posted by sailingfun

It's beyond silly. The 757er with winglets is listed at 4100 miles for range. The 739-900ER is listed at 3265 miles for range and that's with two aux tanks in the belly eating all your baggage room. The 757 is marginal for most NY to near Europe routes in the winter. The 737 would be a disaster.