You mean the smoky dive biker bar by Kroger's?

Should I bring my guitar? What time you guys getting started? More importantly, should we bring ear plugs?

Of course if it is an MD88 tribute band, it needs to play Bowie or Manfred Mann. Stuff that makes no sense and has confused orientation.

 

A merger in the next 3-5 years is almost certainly coming, but JBLU is not even a possibility. We already cover just about everything they do and have the eastern half of the US, carribean and Latin America suitcased. The merger coming will be something that improves our west coast and Pacific route structure. Organic growth out there would be waaaaayyy too expensive. It is a low yield market with AA, UAL, LUV, and AS all firmly entrenched and saturating the region. A merger is the only way to improve our presence beyond code share without some major changes to our fleet. A West Coast push is coming in 2013/2014 when the Big New York projects are complete and the debt has been reduced to an acceptable level. We are already buying up advertising rights to sporting venues and teams in LA and we have the contract for the Angels' Charter.

AS would be very expensive, and we really only need about 2/3 of their flying. Mostly just their up and down the coast stuff. We have all their Hawaii and most of their transcon routes already covered. That said, we have been slowly but deliberately aligning our operations at SEA and LAX. AS would be great for the company (pilot value would depend on the SLI) if the right set of circumstances present themselves...for now, I think DAL is happy with a very tight code share. Chance of merger 50%

HA is just about a no brainer. They could be bought for relatively little cost, provide more access to the Asian markets and would make us the undisputed king of the Hawaii market from Central Asia to the East Coast. This would give us the ability to control capacity in a market that has been notoriously saturated and low yielding...a marriage of DAL/HA could change that. They also bring the 717 on property and that alone is a great incentive to pursue an even larger fleet to make them more economical. The 717 is the perfect jet for entry into competetive West Coast Markets and could make organic growth there possible. It is highly effecient on short routes and is low capacity but much roomier than an RJ. As for SLI...they have 533 pilots who are mostly living and based in HNL with a mere handful in SEA. A reasonable SLI could be worked out quickly. I really don't see many of them suddenly commuting 2600 miles to fly the 73n in LAX or 4200 miles to take anyones 7er seat in ATL. Chance of HA merger in 3-5 yrs...75%

 

I'm not so sure, Carl. History says otherwise.
ALPA keeps giving away scope and selling it with enhanced furlough protection.
Remember Moak's grievance settlement that allowed the extra 76 seat jets?

That was a straight up deal to give the company another 26 large RJs in exchange for more no furlough language. It was just 2 years ago.

Here's the settlement, lest we forget:

• The Company will agree to the Association’s interpretation of Section 1 B. 40. d. and e. but (ALPA) provides a one-time exception to this interpretation allowing the Company to operate up to 153* 76-seat jets so long as the Company does not furlough any pilot on the integrated system seniority list as of February 9, 2009, the date the agreement was signed.
...

• If the Company does furlough any pilot on the Integrated System Seniority List, then the Company will physically remove six passenger seats from the number of 76-seat jets (in service, undergoing maintenance and operational spares) that exceeds the authorized number of 76-seat jets under the Association’s interpretation of Section 1 B. 40. d. and e.

The company knew there wasn't going to be any furloughs. So what's the bottom line? They got their 26 extra DCI jets and what did we get? Another no furlough clause.

 

That's just not the case NERD. When NWA purchased Republic in 1986, that merger went straight date of hire. You sure couldn't have said that any merger going forward will also use date of hire. The merger with Delta is proof of that.

Bottom line is that arbitrators are free to do whatever they want. Including ignoring all past precedent. Don't ever forget that.

Carl

 

He wrote that while trying to read the wet compass through 2 mirrors.

 

Sounds like DALPA is selling the same thing!

 

Just flew with a mid-seniority guy and we started about our upcoming contract. He stated that DALPA negotiated C2K and even though the company couldn't afford it, Leo signed it anyway, and basically bankrupt the company overnight. I wasn't at DL in 2000, so if anyone would chime in, i'd appreciate. But it seems to me there's more than a few of those that think that way. If that's the case, we're in big trouble.

 

So SWA gets 78 hour min guarantee and we have 70. We want W2 parity. Okay, take their posted hourly rates and multiply by 78, that's their monthly min, now divide it out by 70 which is ours.





For reference:


BTW, I got these numbers from Shiznit's post way back when. Can someone tell me if its 2000 or 2004 numbers?

And DAL 88, I'm getting closer to your numbers now aren't I? (green smilie guy)

 

Your understanding of that agreement is highly flawed.
First we were not sure we could win in arbitration. Felt it was 50/50 at best.
Second the companies fleet plan would have allowed those jets before we could have ever reached a arbitration award. Even if we had won the jets would then have been permitted under the fleet plan since they were taking delivery of additional mainline jets.
If we went to arbitration even with a slam dunk win there was little to be gained for the pilot group. We probably would have been awarded some financial compensation.
Had we lost in the arbitration then there would have been a lot of damage and going forward we would have been subject to the company's opinion on that section. That would mean more 76 seat RJ's allowed for the duration of the contract if not longer.
I have spoken to many pilots who opposed that agreement. Those that took the time to actually read what was going on and understand it to a man agreed that Dalpa handled it well. The one comment from a real Dalpa hater summed it up. I don't like the agreement but I understand it and it was the smart thing to do.

 

Any updates on this:
I'm hearing we're giving in. I hope that's not true.