I am not a lawyer, but if you sign a contract that voids a preexisting contract, then you will more than likely find yourself in breach of one or both of those contracts. Add to it, that you probably could be accused of negotiating in bad faith.

What really should be written in a PWA is for there to be no "New" or renegotiated nor extended DCI contracts. In would need to read that all DCI ASA's would terminate and not be renewed nor renegotiated, nor new ones be agreed to. That way DAL can in good faith fulfill their responsibilities of all of these contracts.

The beauty of doing it this way means if a DCI operator does not meet a metrics or any other bar that is set forth in these ASA's, DAL has to hold them accountable because letting them go and redefining these contract to "look past" or "agree to" these metrics not being met would be an amendment which would be in breach on the PWA agreement stated above.

Make sense? :eek:

Agreed, but he was asking for the first LC day of his reserve period so I chose not to muddy the water. :eek:

DAL88;
It is a gray area. Many of the High Mileage fliers are too committed to DAL to leave, so they may book around. DAL is giving many fliers the option to by adding 88's to many medium gauge destinations. I am sure there are some that have left, and we gain customers that have left other airlines as well.

Of note, the 100 seat jet will be the determining factor in the fate of DCI. If we sell it, DCI will have a renewed sense of importance for the next two decades. We keep it, and I believe that DCI will be all but gone within ten years for the reasons I stated in my initial post. It is as I have said about whipsaw, but more importantly where the cost allocation hits for the jet. DAL will not want all of the new metal needed over the next 20 years to be financed by out bottom line. Make no mistake it is a business decision.

Of note on your first point. Our CEO is the leader of "all" of Delta, not just mainline. He needs to sell all of it. I would assume that any drive to reduce DCI would be an internal initiative and not one that would be waged in the public eye. It is simply bad business for someone as visible as a CEO of a 30 billion dollar a year company to do anything like that.

Some things in my opinion should not be taken personally and this article in Sky is one of them. At the end of the day, D-ALPA has exclusivity with DAL, and we are the ones that determine who flies what. Everything else imo is eyewash.

So could I!

DAL seems to be seeing that to. We are now finally adding 9's and 88's to cities like PFN, BHM etc. We also need to add them to cities like TLH, YYZ, YUL, OMA, ICT, and more. Yes we could go on for hours! :eek:

It will look at the first day of call or a trip and back out from there for all of the booking windows. Remember that it is a noon that the half day starts no matter what time your show is.

Correct, and that is what is "know" and does not consider the rumors or other uptick possibilities.

I know looking at block hr requirements for 2011 we could easily hire double what we have already had, but those numbers are not finalized and until they are it is a moving target. Here is a too a continual uptick and constant need for new blood! :)

Definitely a true statement. But I think the recent Sky Magazine article by RA represents more than just marketing. It makes it sound to me like they are continuing to throw a lot of money at this thing with the idea that they can make it equal to mainline.

I hope all that you are saying comes true. But I get concerned when I see them go out of their way to tout all the investment and effort they are putting into DCI. The way they talk about it just doesn't sound like something that's on its way out. In fact, it sounds like the opposite to me.

DAL88, I do not like the fact that we just signed another 10 year deal with TSH, but the ASA agreement runs for the same duration.

With a decade of commitment you are darn right they are going to try and dress it up. That is a lot of time to do a so so job with that product. It is here for that duration, and unless legislation prohibits this type of agreement it will be here for at least than time frame. I do not want DCI to bring DAL down so I do not have any issue with DCI getting jet ways, keeping their planes nice, updating the interiors etc.
As we both agree many of our customers see it as DAL so if it looks like crud, they are going to assign that opinion to DAL, are they not?

Winford and ST ATL crew room update
 

Not sure if any of this info is breaking, but WS and ST just did a crew room update in ATL. Some of their points were:

-AE first week in Sept. and another in Jan.
-Due to an increase in flying expect to see the following on the Sept AE:
+20 777 crews
+20 747 crews
+ ?? 7er crews all over

-Jan AE
A330 coming to ATL. Maybe Jan?
ATL 757 to convert to ER
May see 320s/747s in ATL in the next 6-12 months (he said historically ATL flys all equipment and would expect to see those here in the next 6-12) A330 for sure.

-ST talked about importance of getting first flight of the day out of ATL (usually around 50 flights)
-If you call for MX within 20 minutes of push that is coded as a flight ops delay
-We can get 3 MD90's for the cost of 1 737-800
Guys asked a bunch of questions but nothing earth shattering.

All seems positive! Thanks for the update. :)