As has been said before, and influenced by a few glasses of wine, I don't care why anyone has a beef with the -9. It is flown by mainline pilots. That's all I care about. I'm about 20% up the list on the 757 and flown Boeing my entire eight year career at DAL. However, I'm beginning to think that with my anticipated displacement, that a DC9 SIC rating lies in my future. As much as I don't want to leave the 757, I'd rather be an employed DAL pilot flying the -9 Super 80 Series, than a furloughed pilot hoping to fly any DAL jet.

The fact is, no one should care about how long the -9 stays with DAL. As long as we have mainline aircraft on the property, no one should care if its a DC7 or a 747-400. Mainline jobs is all I care about. Period. Protection of mainline jobs is all I care about. Without that, we aren't worth a whole lot. So as far as I'm concerned, I hope that the last DC9 pilot at Delta is in the first grade. That means that we've kept 1000 extra jobs on the property instead of seeing them disappear. When I was hired at DAL I was Seniority #10125. With the merger of 5000 pilots, I am 1000 less than that. Somewhere in the last few years, both sides have let 5000 jobs disappear most likely never to return. This is THE fight!

I thought the C-9s in Atlanta were transferred to Houston or some such place in Texas? Had a neighbor move to Texas because of it.

You are correct - I believe that they are at Navy Fort Worth - home to the Navy VR wing. This was all brought about in the last BRAC cycle.
Scoop

Preach on, brotha! preach on!

Well put.

ALPA's history is to sell scope when times get rough. IMHO we need to look at our near horizon:

• If fuel goes back up (an immediate threat to the DC9 and its JT8D powered cousin)
• If the Company furloughs more than 4% of its list
• If loads deteriorate

IMHO the Company will come looking for relief from the 76 to 70 seat scope trigger and possibly other restrictions. My opinion is we need to be on record with the position that "if you want to operate those airplanes, the PILOTS need to be on THE mainline list." The Company can operate the airplanes across Certificates (as Republic Airlines Holdings does) but if the jet flies, a Delta pilot holds the controls without exception.

Bar,

My recollection is that during DAL's contract re-negotiation during bankruptcy the pilot group emphatically told the MEC that they did not want ANY changes to scope beyond the (then) current 70 seat limit.

The MEC capitulated and the 76 seat jet was allowed. Many (former) DAL pilots refer to the 76 seat jets as "Moak Jets" in "honor" of MEC chairman Lee Moak.

It was "amazing" how quickly those aircraft showed up. I strongly suspect they had been on order well before the "negotiations".

It's alway next time isn't it.

I'm sure all of you guys were saying a year ago that come the next contract we're going to recapture some of our flying.

What happened just a few months ago. Everyone was complaining that they weren't getting a big enough share of the pie. There were plenty of delta guys saying the pay increase (%) should have been the same as NWA's and did nothing about the flying. Hell you were all scared that the dc9 flying was going to go away just like your 737-200/300. You were talking possible furloughs but you did absolutely nothing about recapturing 70+ seats so that it doesn't happen.

It's going to cost real dollars to get those planes back and I really doubt any of you are willing to do that unless you are very junior. Both sides just proved that a few months back.

Anyone want to ballpark what it'd cost us to get 76 seaters on the DAL mainline pilot side? Are we talking giving up $5/hr, $10/hr, or more plus work rules? Or just creating another Delta Express?
...
And, is the parking of the 757s and 767s just for upgrades or is this the future of our operation in which margin management trumps CASM? The margin (not CASM but margin) is greater with a 142 seater than a 184 seater on a market segment that demands a 170 seater, thus park the 184 seaters? Use one plane smaller than the plane you need to build margin?

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Sidetrack, 747 being painted in DAL colors video: Delta News Network

Great video. I wonder how long before they replace the picture in e-Crew

Wasatch,

Actually the jets were already here, and flying regularly. The scope change didn't allow for new jets, it allowed seats. The jets that had been flying with 70 seats were reconfigured with 76 seats. That's all that changed. I was still philosophically opposed to them, but those are the facts.

PG