You must believe that those seats leaving ATL will be permanent.....

I am sure he means well and checks his facts, but, IMO, alot of the information "leaked" to these public forums is done intentionally, with permission from the powers that be, which is fine.

ACL is a smart man. He has the unique ability to connect the dots between publicly distributed information and make informed guesses as to where the corporate ship will steer next. He is correct more then he is incorrect.

Nothing is permanent in the airline industry. Pilot's just have the shortest memories than anyone I know. But at least we are optimistic.

Permanent, no. But I think there will be more seats leaving ATL before any seats come back.

I watched that the other night and was pleasantly surprised at his comments at the end and to hear that for the first time "Delta" and a "big comfy airplane" were used in the same sentence and the RJ was for Continental. Good goes around.

From what I've heard and others as well is once the second 330 sim comes on line there will be a transfer of flying to ATL to offset the 765 flying going to JFK. Also, the big variable is where the bulk of the narrow body flying out of LGA will come from. Will it be NYC pilots or increased flying from ATL? Not that that helps the exodus of 450 widebody slots out of ATL. But at some point the big flying will come back here. I just think the next 18-24 months will be shared pain for all.

If I knew someone in management to send the Craig Ferguson link to I would send it to them. Think of how many people have an experience like that on one of our DCI carriers and end up switching airlines!!!

Personally, not being an expert in network planning or staffing, even with these fleet reductions Delta will still have a very large, extensive operating fleet. I think we'll still be looking at around 10-12 different aircraft types which will more than likely require the extra staffing numbers.

Additionally, I don't think you can look at this, from an aircraft standpoint, as one for one. The staffing requirements, per aircraft, for a DC-9 compared to a B-777 are very different. I've heard somewhere in the range on 20-30 crews per B-777, again I'm not sure how that fairs to the DC-9.

I agree with you about getting to caught up in rumors and hearsay, so I'll choose to remain cautiously optimistic. I think for the foreseeable future, 1 year from now, Delta will stay for the most part flat in staffing balanced down the middle of hiring or furloughing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...15-705619.html

I think the million dollar questions is if and when the economy starts to pick up. At this point it could go either way, and to try and speculate one way or the other is nothing more than an edumacated guess.

Agreed.

Maybe - go speak with your CP to get a better feel for what is planned.