65000...... heeeeeey

 

The key is the word "effectively" You said it yourself, they are not working over their vacation.. but more to the point, they are getting paid for their days off, not getting paid to take those days off.

 

I bet Alaska starts hiring soon. Delta is turning into a west bound train wreck. Can't wait to see a few thousand more po'ed pilots watching their QOL go away to another code share.

Meanwhile, CAL opened a 737 LAX base.

 

I wonder how many of the old 747-200 guys, who got displaced out of SEA years ago to ANC, only to come back to SEA on the A330 there are? I doubt those guys will follow the plane and will just displace back to the ER, assuming they can handle the pay cut (knowing they will now HAVE to work to 65 even if they weren't going to before - big if I know). Anyway, if they blow up the SEA A330 base it will be a mess all down the west coast.

Ferd

PS Talked to a United guy commuting home from LAX Saturday. Guess they have put in a mail room for the CAL 737 guys with a locked door..........so the United guys won't do anything to the scabs boxes. He said there are a few (and they knew who they are) when I asked if they wouldn't be too old for the 737.

 

Good on ya, PG. Thanks for letting me know.

Unfortunately, the devil is often in the details. The real question is just how much scope, pay, and reserve system improvement we want and expect. I look forward to ALPA (or whoever ends up representing us) beginning to make the case for massive improvements to our bankruptcy contract and I have to ask, "why wasn't this done the moment we came out bankruptcy and the 'emergency' was over?" And why, almost half a decade after bankruptcy and record setting profits last year, do we STILL not have any clear objective and statement of resolve?

So... I'm assuming you do not agree with that. And like you said, "we may not agree often"... which means we disagree often... so when we disagree, I want to make sure you know. (Seriously, though, just pulling your chain PG. I'm glad we agree on the basic priorities. )

 

American Airlines launches 10 new routes at LAX; new Shanghai service becomes seventh international route | anna.aero
American Airlines launches 10 new routes at LAX; new Shanghai service becomes seventh international route

The third busiest passenger airport in the US last year, Los Angeles International Airport, reported a 4.5% growth in passenger numbers to 59.1 million in 2010. In recent years, United has been the biggest carrier at the airport, but no single carrier has more than a 20% share of seat capacity. During the last week, American Airlines has taken the significant step of launching 10 new routes from the airport, most of them operated by its subsidiary American Eagle Airlines. As a result, it is now in a clear second place and at least in terms of weekly seat capacity is not far behind United Airlines.

Airline Frequency share Capacity share Routes (Dom/Int)
United Airlines 24.6% 16.8% 55 (47/8)
American Airlines 19.0% 16.3% 42 (35/7)
Southwest 14.4% 14.1% 21 (21/-)
Delta 11.6% 12.2% 29 (22/7)
Alaska Airlines 5.9% 5.4% 20 (10/10)
Source: OAG Max Online for w/c 4 April 2011
Although American and United lead the way, the airline operating the most international routes from LAX is Alaska Airlines, which serves nine destinations in Mexico as well as Vancouver in Canada.

Nine new domestic routes plus Shanghai

The highest-profile new route launch of the week for American was its new daily service to Shanghai in China, a destination already served from LAX by China Eastern Airlines. Until now, all Chinese destinations from LAX were served by Chinese carriers; Beijing (Air China), Guangzhou (China Southern), Shanghai (China Eastern), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific) and Taipei (China Airlines and EVA Air).

American’s other non-stop international routes from LAX are London Heathrow, San Jose del Cabo (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico*), San Salvador (El Salvador), Tokyo Narita, and Toronto (Canada).

Disappointingly for the airport, none of the airline’s new domestic routes are to destinations not already served by at least one other carrier.

Of the nine domestic routes American is starting from LAX, three are served by just one other airline, three by two airlines, two by three airlines and on the Phoenix route American is joining Delta, Southwest, United and US Airways in competing for passengers. Continental and US Airways compete on just one of these new routes, Delta on three, Southwest on six and United on eight. All of these additional routes will help provide feed for the long-haul flights, in particular to London, Shanghai and Tokyo.

 

Do you live near Los Angeles or something? You're always so concerned about this Alaska codeshare.

 

"Watching" is the operative word.

IMO, Alaska is a bigger threat to us than RAH.

I see them when I go through MSP now. I think I saw them in ATL last month.

Where in the world can they be going from MSP or ATL that DAL pilots can't go?

I will report that when I talked to a few union guys about it, they said they were studying the effects the codeshare has on DAL pilots. So, we sill see where that goes.

I think they need to get a few more calls.....ok.....lots of calls from us about Alaska.

 

Buzz, this is real estate that was given up by our illustrious ATL MEC/pro-management team. In the world of land warfare it is exponentially harder to retake turf than to defend it; same principles apply here. While I would like to believe that DAL ALPA may finally get a case of nasty in their soul, management has been awarding long term 70 and 76 seat contracts as fast as they can and right up to the limit. Of course a VP will will make a base tour and tell some sheep that he "hates RJ's," the reality is that a EMB 170-195 nor a CRJ-900 is a RJ. The 737's flown by Alaska aren't RJ's either but the damage is actually much worse. Realistically, it doesn't matter what some VP in a crew lounge states, it's not an official declaration and for all practical purposes he's lying. He probably flies back to ATL and high-fives his buddies," Yeah, I told them I hate RJ's.".

Even if management were to agree on restoring scope, they would caveat it with, "Well we've negotiated ten-year contracts with these carriers and it's economically impossible to buy our way out of these contracts until then." The reality, half the pilots at this airline will more than likely be retired before we could see that reversal come to fruition; it'd be three contracts down the road.

I've run the logic every which way I can, the only two options are the status quo or mergers. The status quo will only lead to more pain (the train wreck that already began long ago).

The problem that needs to be addressed now is the mentality in ATL. Of all people, a pilot in a management position has chosen to reduce the 320 training program to "video professor-style" training. Ive flown with a multitude of great South pilots who really appreciated the 320 training program, referring to it as the old Delta way of doing busines; no more. Destroyed by one of our own, so he can save money in how we train and add the up front monetary savings to his resume. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong, if it does maybe they can pay for the damages out of his paycheck.

Similar in mentality, but an entirely different topic, scope/code shares. Seems like the crud sandwich always starts away from ATL. Management approaches DAL ALPA, requests more scope relief and code shares, ALPA negotiates a win for ATL in some other area (777 deliveries!), every base west of the Mississippi gets hosed.

Sorry, not optimistic in the least bit.

 

<DISCLAIMER: This is not intended to evolve into a North v. South debate.>

I'm just trying to get my memory straight.

At NWA, does anyone remember Alaska starting a route to one of our hubs (SEA-MSP???) then NWA retaliating by putting a 747-200 on SEA-ANC?

Did that happen, or am I "misremembering" that?