787 will make a good 767 replacement.

We're bigger than SkyWest and smaller than AF/KLM/AI. That's our niche.

Bar;
It is not an opinion, it is a rumor that keeps popping up. Big difference.

The sky is falling. :rolleyes:... DAL had the lowest fuel price of the airlines last year. They can afford to pay us more.

Peak oil is real. Gas is going to get more expensive, a lot more expensive. DAL is doing the right stuff wrt to fuel.

If you think the economic churn the world is in is just going to magically go poof and disappear, I want some of what you are smoking.

Combine peak oil with the annual expansion of worldwide fuel usage, it is possible that I may not make it to age 65 and almost a certainty Clamp wont - as an airline pilot.

Depends on a lot, mostly our scope.

People are going to want to travel .... a year on a rickety rockin sail boat eating the other passengers when the winds are unfavorable isn't going to cut it as an alternative.

R A certainly is willing to wait out the market. He's waiting for airplanes to sell at liquidation prices. The rub is that whatever forces other airlines to liquidate has usually damaged us too and those airplanes are pretty worn out (rotables timed out) when they get to us. We really waited on the 757 replacement as late as we possibly could have and probably missed the new engine option jets simply because we could not wait.

R A may be hoping to catch the wave of 777's that get turned in as the 787's enter service. If the early numbers were correct, the 787 is economic leap forward over the 777 and will have much lower maintenance costs as well as a capacity footprint that drives higher revenue per seat mile. Disappointed A350 customers and the cargo operators will likely maintain used 777 prices long enough that our gambit will have done little other than make our costs unappealing compared to our partners.

Aren't those replacements for the older B747's and MD11's? I'm pretty certain they're replacements and not growth.

I guess we will all just go back to boats and trains then. :rolleyes:

True, but isn't that just another day in the airline biz? Look at the current conditions we are making $$$ in. Five years ago did anyone think we could make money in this environment? You adapt, or you die.

After this last AE, what was the junior CA?

Yep, here we go again. Helping the company prep the battlefield by laying the foundations for a "perfect storm" of economic and other factors that are sure to hit right at contract negotiation time.

Tell you what, you worry about how we get more money and more time off...and DISCREDITING the company's scare tactics. The company can worry about managing my expectations and inventing a disaster without your help. I don't want DALPA doing the company's dirty work. Not on my dime.

Good news, we're no longer the most rapidly shrinking airline in North America. We moved up to #2! (not paying attention to Frontier, being run by a David Koresh wanna be who figured a great place to complete was the middle of a shoot out between UAL and SWA for Denver dominance)