Airline Pilot Central Forums - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?

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- - Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta? (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/delta/36912-any-latest-greatest-about-delta.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 857498)

DAL88;

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.

Any airplane that has one more seat or one more pound then already allowable will be flown by DAL pilots. Management wants synergies via mergers and I believe CAL/UAL will happen. This has/will create some monster pilot groups, and we have the ability to really help each other out in restoring this career.

If DAL management wants any new jets larger then what is already allowed, they will bring them to mainline. PERIOD. Scope is no longer for sale. Ain't happening. Done. No negotiating. I don't care anymore. I wouldn't take C2K rates plus anything for scope sale. The pay rates do us NO good if there is no place to put our butts to earn said rates. Nuff said. :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scoop (Post 857450)

No. There will always be a place for RJ "feed" in the system, but some of the "smaller" RJ markets can be served just fine by mailine.

Smaller markets such as:

SLC-SFO
SLC-SAN
JFK-ORD
CVG-PHL

I could go on here for hours, but I think the point is obvious - RJs are needed on some routes, on others, not so much.

I assume that your premise in "markets can be served just fine by mainline" means that the company can generate a reasonable level of return on those routes using mainline aircraft. Is that correct?

If so, then why wouldn't they do it?:confused:

Slow, I beleive that these guys are saying is that those 70/76 seat jets are mainline jets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirty (Post 857511)

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.

Sounds about right. ATL will have to sit tight for now, and the movement there starts in Jan.

Either way it is good because for now it is positive growth.

Slow,

First off - Why so defensive of management? All I was saying is that there are plenty of routes that RJs were serving that could be served by mainline.

If you are asking me to explain why our management does what they do, you are asking quite a bit. I was simply responding to a previous post about RJ.s. Are you saying markets such as JFK-ORD can not support mainline service?

Finally, my guess as to why we are doing this is that there are a bunch of reasons:

In their RJ love-fest days management signed a bunch of long term contracts that are now binding. Also, we probably parked too many mainline jets and now don't have enough aircraft to serve these markets without RJs.

And finally let me ask you some questions - Why would management sign a deal where our connection carriers were making consistent profits at no risk and DAL was posting record loses?

Why would management buy COMAIR and ASA high and sell low?

Why are they always 180 out on fuel hedges?

Answer to all - They make mistakes. Are you inferring because our management does something it is correct? That they couldn't possibly be doing something now, that in hindsight will appear foolish? I guess you are saying if we are using RJs on these routes its the right, ie. correct, ie. the most profitable thing to do?

Scoop

Quote:

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 857509)

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?

It's a tough call on that. Do you continue spending time and resources trying to fix something that you haven't been able to fix with the considerable time and resources you've already spent all these years? Or do you just reallocate as much of the flying to mainline as possible and try to live with whatever minimum amount of RJ flying you can get away with under the contractual obligations you have? I don't know... that's above my pay grade. But I sure hope we're not throwing good money after bad... and continuing to lose customers in the process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirty (Post 857511)

To add to this, each 777/747 capt opening creates 20 movements below :)

Wear your seat belts in the hotels van folks!! I just watched one of my F/A get thrown around as we got rear-ended in a 6 car pile up heading to the hotel!! Everyone is ok other than the sore necks etc.
Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scoop (Post 857527)

Heyas Scoop,

Don't let the spin dissuade you.

I was walking down the B/C concourse in DTW the other day.

Virtually ALL of the cities were former mainline NW cities, that we served profitably with that bad old gas guzzling DC-9 for YEARS and YEARS.

Tiny places like AZO, TVC, MBS, State Capitols Like OMA and LAN...short hops like FNT, and international destinations like YYZ and YUL....all once profit centers for the mainline, now flown with outsourced labor.

And Detroit-Houston...ON AN RJ? Delta's second largest hub and the 4th largest O&D market in the US. On an RJ. Um, yea....since when did places like Saint Louis and Houston become "small cities"?

And there were a tiny number of places that are legitimate "commuter ops" that are better, more profitably served with Saabs or DHC-8s...but we waste money subsidizing jet service to these places.

It's a lose, lose, lose all around, and we let it happen.

Nu

Quote:

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 857499)

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:

PFN? I'm not landing at a closed airport :rolleyes: