Well I prefer new 320's. I like my tray table. But if I had to I'm sure I could build a comfy nest in the 737.


Haha. Well I got your point. I really like how management was able to pick an aircraft that will be cash flow positive from Day 1. That's hard to not be happy about IMO. Hopefully there are more to come.

 

Bar, I agree with some of your points and disagree on others. The following is just my opinion, worth what you paid an anonymous webboard pseudonym for it...

CMR was purchased in October of 1999 not because Delta wanted CMR, but because Delta had lost BizEx to AMR. CMR was also making rumblings of pulling an Independence Air. CVG was completely dependent on CMR, and there was no DTW alternative at the time. It was a defensive purchase. While a premium was paid, if memory serves CMR had a lot of assets and a couple hundred million in cash that transferred directly to Delta. While some of those assets were lost in bankruptcy, as you point out many of them were redistributed. Why would management do that? Not out of spite, but because it made financial (in a bean counting sort of way) sense. The redistributed aircraft were operated at lower costs elsewhere. The asset was still productive to Delta, just not to CMR.

CMR's slow destruction is economic Darwinism. They got too senior and cost too much. Even though their employee payscales were in line with their peers, their longevity makes them 20% more expensive to operate the same aircraft. They got big during Delta's financial duress (2000-2004) and shrank hard during bk and after...it's hard to grow when the parent company is failing. FWIW, those 12 GoJet CRJ-700's are rumored to be CMR tails lost to lower cost SkyWest, Inc. during bankruptcy. Without growth their size and costs worked viciously against them. Now their segment of the industry is consolidating and radically changing; there's no dance partner interested in the CMR name.

jmo, and i'm probably wrong.

 

It may not be "comfy," but it will certainly be "cozy."

 

What is a 757-200ER?

 

I wouldn't be so sure about that. But, if you did figure out how to make the 737 comfortable for the Pilots your financial worries would be over. You could patent your "nest" and sell it for a lot of $$$$$$$.

Scoop

 

Despite my feelings from a pilot's (and passenger's perspective), I think the order is the best plane that is available in the time frame that they want it, and it sounds like we got a great deal on it. The pushback more is WHAT it's replacing and that it may not even be a 1:1 replacement. (lower payrate, less capable, and worse pax experience than the 757, and 767)

We are continuing to see an increasingly timid management team that is keyed more toward additional outsourcing than actually trying to make money and grow as a company. I think that is where the negativity stems from.... at least thats where my negativity stems from.

 

I've learned to make very good use of the space between the window clipboard and the window as well as between the O2 mask and the sidewall. That and the yoke clip board and itty bitty window clipboard are all you've got.. always fun going down south and figuring out a place to put your en route maps, although I've worked out a decent system to be able to cycle through them.

That being said, 8 more flight days for me on the 737!

 

Why?

Those planes are 1:1 replacements, not growth.
I'm on the 737, but I would hate to see LAX 737 grow as the LAX 76ER category shrinks. Worse yet the trips paid as 767 trips will now be paid at 737 rates, so as a pilot group, we all just got promised a smaller bag of money in the future.


Other than that a plane is a plane, my interests are more where is it based, what does it pay...

Cheers
George

 

Hey, those are my spots...


Cheers
George

 

The quickest way to make a 737 cockpit more spacious would be to issue a "tablet" EFB to 737 pilots and get rid of the Airside bags. The FO might even be able to store his luggage in the cockpit instead of the FC closet.