It was explained to me they'd be a single category with the ISS configuration.

In fact I was told the FAA would sign off on a single category with the current configurations of our 88s, 90s, Saudi 90s and 717s BUT that every pilot would have to go to training every 90 days. Not feasible obviously. But they could do it.

Did the board approve it?

That is an interesting dot. Where are you getting this little tidbit? The merger has not been approved, much less consummated, and LUV is already shopping them? Really? If they are really desperate, one would think that those airframes would be cheap, but really.. if they ARE shopping them, I wonder how that will go down with the employee groups. Fewer airframes.. fewer jobs... too many employees... connect those dots and I would wonder if the AT employees are still gung ho to get on the LUV train... could that scuttle the deal? Now THAT would be interesting....

Anybody remember the beagle at Diego Garcia? That was the best sniffing dog I've ever seen. They had to carry the old girl up the crew stairs though.

Pony being they don't have to be trained attack dogs. Any old mutt with a nose would do.

Some of the LUV guys have been asking if we had heard about it- early on in the SWA/AAI merger talk. It's plausible and like you I'd ask the same question if I were at AT, however, SWA is hiring.

It's like the rumors are pointing in both directions, guess its a transvestite type rumor.

Hope the pilot groups do the right thing, but I have a bad feeling that the AAI pilots are going to be on the shorter end of that stick regardless.

I'm guessing that LUV could just justify the removal of the 717s with replacement 737s, but I'd be hard pressed to see how long it would take to make such a replacement.

I think there are plenty of 73N's around that they could replace them with. We have a few that we do not want/ option that still need to be picked up.

T-this rumor of AAI shopping the jets has been around longer than their merger. SWA wants the 700 and 800 not two jets with a similar seat count. Add to it they do not want to reconfig em.

Suffice to say it is an option, and DAL looks at all options.

Duuuuuh.. ya think?

TSA Removes CrewPASS Implementation Hurdle



Last week, ALPA president Capt. John Prater met with the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and the TSA administrator, John Pistole, to urge their support for obtaining CrewPASS in the near term. Late on Friday, ALPA received an invitation to meet with the TSA this afternoon to discuss this important program. ALPA was informed that the administrator had taken ALPA’s message seriously and that he wants to see CrewPASS implemented as quickly as possible. To help facilitate that, TSA has now dropped its previous requirement for pilots to be enrolled with a biometric (e.g., a fingerprint); this provision will be restored in the future, but what it means for now is that CrewPASS becomes much simpler and less expensive to implement than previously.

The TSA is meeting with the airlines tomorrow (Tuesday) and has asked us to coordinate with the other parties in an effort to facilitate the success of this program. Capt. Prater has reached out to the other crewmember unions and industry officials to develop a consensual solution.

TSA today emphasized that ALPA had “cleared the way” for CrewPASS to become a success.

ALPA's comments on the NPRM as today is the 15th and the comment period is not close can be found at the link below.

http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/com...M_11-15-10.pdf