Why laugh? I mean the light at the end of the tunnel that we all thought was a train might actually just be blue skies? And why not. I can live with this for the night. Kind of like winning $86M on Megamillions. Why go look and see if I won, why not just go to bed tonight and think, what if I won? I'm content. E175s, E190s here by 2011. Nice. Thanks KC.

Well here's the thing, people and firms invest and want a return. CEOs are money managers now, not boistorous pesonalities like a Howard Hughes. Rather, they're more like bankers because they really are managing the money of the owners and if that meant outsourcing to regionals, you outsourced even if it was to save a dime but cost you a dollar. That said, I look around and I see Delta going in the right direction ever since 06-07, and more importantly, we see statements like "we want out of the RJ business" coming from on high because they see regionals becoming threats and not providing good short term financial gains.

This is like a company closing its plants in the U.S. and moving them to China. Works well until China uses tooling, know-how and other resources to start making your product for less, and selling it. Thats an outsource model that failed and maybe, just maybe, they're seeing that with regionals like Republic and Skywest becoming mega-regionals with goals not in line with Delta's.

Take back the flying. For those of us on the bottom, it'd be a hell of a good fast ride.

Ever been to Kansas? You see these Kum and Go gas stations every where and I'm holding back on what I can post on this one.

http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/...7/trkumngo.jpg

They've got to know, right?

80 and I had a deal that if he didn't blow my cover, he could interview all the co-ed's that applied to work behind the counter.

Deals off, 80!

ftb, you want the job?

The fact that this .....


http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/a...ffin/Newks.gif

..... is the only pic I could come up with shows that one of you need the head interviewers job. :D

Did you just read Richard's letter to the passengers in Sky Magazine? I'm not very optimistic about getting rid of the regionals.

I'll be honest, I didn't read it.

I'm just going off the conference call or wherever it was that RA or EB or whoever said we want out of RJ business. I don't know how you cancel contracts though. I'd be interested to know, if they could would they?

The thing about scope, if we hold, the 50 seaters will eat themselves unless the double dip occurs and oil goes down. In a way, high oil but a sluggish economy would work in our favor. Anything that says more seats with less frequency.

Of course we as pilots have a knack for missing the true equation. RJ lifers seem to think they're cheaper then we are, but pilot/asm generally works in our favor. I've seen numbers but I won't post because they're a little too good and so I doubt them. On the other hand, mainline pilots forget its not mainline casm vs rj casm, but rather mainline rasm-casm vs rj rasm-casm. He who contributes the most wins but to an extent its one big pot that can be broken out without taking into account the TYS-ATL-CDG passenger wouldn't have been on an RJ if it wasn't to connect to our international. Then of course, how many seats should or can a market have, thats the other equation and if you can have 2 76 seaters for the cost of 1 88, then whats best? If anyone can solve a rubic cube in 7 seconds and enjoys airplanes and messes, then they might be able to figure it all out with perfect future clarity.

I volunteer Super. I'm a pushover. You need someone that will stand their ground. And not do 80s dirty work.

Worse thing you could hear as a guy when you ask a girl out: "I don't really see you in that kind of way, I see you more as a, big sister!" *

Ouch.

*lifted from The Simpsons

When I've heard the term "its a Captains airline..." it was presented not as if Captains would say it but rather that FLTOPS/MGMT/CPO/DALPA would treat it that way.

When I was in training an issue came up and the instructor said that the instructors had been complaining but nobody was listening, and he then said if I (FTB) complained they'd blow me off but if you (an A) complained they'd listen. So for our sake, please complain.

But nobody ever said its a Captains airline so as to infer anything about our Captains in any way shape or form. I think most people here are very wise and know to take everyone one person at a time and not throw out a blanket statement such as Captains think they're a minor god. It was a statement about how "they" would view a non-Captain oppinion about an issue.

Whether thats true, I don't know. I've been here 2.5 years and never wrote up a complaint about anything, so I wouldn't know.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...inecaptain.jpg

^^^ :D those are so spot on, I love the station agent one.

FtB;
Regionals are good for the airline managers for a few reasons. Whipsaw is always one that we see, but the other is for the balance sheet. With 674 aircraft flying Delta passengers around that are not being "financed" by Delta but by the third party operators that is a lot of debt commitment that does not hit the mainline balance sheet.
Yes, DAL is ultimately paying for the lease payments on these aircraft, but it does not hit our credit per se. Not being responsible for the lease agreement or aircraft note allows DAL to "show" less debt commitments in their 8 and 10-K's, as well as other filings. It in effect moves that debt commitment to a partner. We just pay airlines like SKW a fee that is "close" to the lease payment, but it is part of the contract and not actual debt for DAL.

Make sense?

That would be great, and it would be at least 10 years before the ASA and TSH(CPS) contracts expired and this was allowed to happen.

I have always been for part of the PWA that stated that no DCI contracts would be renewed and no new ones would be written.

As we move in to the NextGen airspace, there will be some airspace freed up, but the simple reality is we will need bigger jets with less frequency to do all of the required lift. There is only so much concrete and so much airspace. The logical thing is for the hull size to change.

That said, would be we buying something back for steep price that many contend may be obsolete anyway? (Just sayin....) Giving a counter point to the "Buy it back argument because I have not had enough coffee this AM) :eek: