Ya know I don't think I've had a ramper get on me for grabbing strollers/car seats. I have heard that it's happened, but I don't care if it does. Our customers don't pay to stand on the jetway while our bad attitude rampers dilly dally and bring the stuff up at their convience rather then the customers. They want to pay slip it, fine whatever. But when a mom is traveling by herself with a couple young children and an infant I'm not going to stand by and watch her struggle in the jetway with kids and bags waiting for a stroller. Same with boarding, I like to help them with bags while they board. JMHO.

 

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) said Wednesday that it would add new nonstop service between Raleigh-Durham International Airport and five cities this fall, while also increasing service to three existing destinations.

The new cities are Hartford, Conn; Columbus, Ohio; Orlando, Fla.; St. Louis, Mo. and Tampa, Fla. The airline also will also launch additional service to Boston, New York-JFK and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The new service will begin on Nov. 1 and will add a total of 14 daily flights. The expanded schedule brings Delta’s total daily service at RDU to 54 peak-day flights to 15 nonstop domestic destinations.

RDU officials were thrilled with the announcement.

“It’s great,” says Teresa Damiano, who heads up the RDU’s air service recruitment efforts. “It’s obviously the largest amount of frequency added at one time by an existing carrier.”

Delta has never served Hartford or Columbus from RDU before. But it has previously offered flights between RDU and Orlando, Tampa and St. Louis.

About 233,000 passengers fly between RDU and Orlando each year, while 195,000 go between RDU and Tampa. St. Louis is next with 98,000, followed by Hartford (96,000) and Columbus (49,000).

Here’s what the new service will look like:

· New service to Hartford (BDL) with two flights per day with an Embraer 175 and CRJ-100 aircraft.

· New service to Columbus (CMH) once a day served by a CRJ-100 aircraft.

· New service to Orlando (MCO) three times a day using a CRJ-100 aircraft.

· New service to St. Louis (STL) on a CRJ-100 aircraft twice daily.

· New service to Tampa (TPA) two times per day served by a CRJ-100 aircraft.

· Increased service to Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) from four to five flights daily.

· Increased service to Boston (BOS) from three to five flights daily.

· Increased service to New York-JFK from one to two flights daily.

Read more: Delta to add five RDU destinations, 14 new flights - Triangle Business Journal

 

The Flight Release issue, so well dredged up here is indicative of the concerns I have about Flight Operations Mgt. as a whole. The top portion of the Flight Release is signed by the Captain and the Dispatcher that it is safe to operate the flight. It contains information critical to immediate decision making, communications with ATC regarding emergencies, weight and balance, fuel minimums and routing. It ought to contain alternate requirements, MEL items and contact numbers, but the one I get does not. I use it to brief the cabin crew, when I walk back to talk to the agents, when I call dispatch and to record changes in routing, clearances, MEL updates and anything I want to use to increase my S.A. If I should have any sort of abnormal, deviation from plan or incident, I take it home with me to record items for follow up items like ASAP, ASR, Security incidents, and crew management problems. I record oil monitors, reference MEL items without digging, and call my dispatcher and talk to him If I leave the cockpit. And in spite of all the good reasons for each pilot to have a copy of the release, there is only one that comes off the printer when I prepare to fly.
It has been called whining, it has been called unnecessary and somehow I don't get it. It is in my opinion, a good idea and one that is a no or minimal cost fix. If you don't think the uses I described are of any value, don't bother. Until something as obviously positive as this is implemented, the merger synergies are just lip service.

 

The RDU expansion is all RJs. Well the new routed are. Ugh.

 

King, I know what you are getting at. Your point is all of that is in other places on the release. When I stared here, I was also a little surprised that all of that data was no on the rental agreement, but I am sure it is digitally store somewhere.

I know that at my previous company when a MEL was added or deleted we needed to get approval an annotate it on the flight release. No so here. We get approval, but it is not on the copy that goes out the door. I guess it is just different. Seems to work though.

 

Johnso, I figure we can go after AMR in RDU with RJ's but we better go after them in DFW with mainline. We saw how well the RJ answer worked before.

 

Heyas,

Before we launch off into another "discussion" about this, remember that the "release" at NWA had a completely different set/presentation of information that DAL had/has.

The release itself was only about 12 inches long. Three were printed, one was signed and left with the agent. The weather, notams, and the flight plan (roughly equivilent to the howgozit, but with more information) were only printed once.

On the release, there was also a section on fuel planning. NWA used the "EFOA - estimated fuel on arrival" technique, which made calculating your fuel, when holding or being delayed, a snap (the flight plan contained "burn to go" data).

What I have found is generally when I'm loading the FMS, the other guy wants to look at the MELs. If he/she is trying to verify the fuel, I'm trying to make sure the routing is correct.

It's pretty pointless to argue this point. Guys are going to believe what they want to, and unless you've flown with both systems, you mostly make your "observations" from fourth or fifth hand "information".

Nu

 

Rofl....

 

Compass cats are reporting in the regional forum that the Compass MEC came to an agreement with DAL management to grandfather all pilots on the Compass seniority list as of Aug 19, 2010 to flow UP.

I wonder what's going on with the flow DOWN? Hmmmmmmmmm.............

 

He could run for Senator and hang out with former Senator Larry Craig, MN. They could be airport stall mates before those long trans-Pacific flights.