Is 80 the guy in the front or back of that pic?

 

Back to the L&G on Delta. According to a MD88 LCA, at the last meeting with management ... next quarter will be the most profitable Winter in Delta's history.

IMHO - sets us up well for the discussion of a 100 to 130 seat jet which is supposed to be revisited this year, as well as C2012.

 

Time will tell on next quarter's profit.

IMHO, the 100-130 seat jet is already being flown by outsourced labor.

Time will tell on C2012. Our current collective bargaining agent will determine how 2012 goes for us. Expectations are high, we will see.

 

Scambo,

You know my position on our outsourcing. The current crop of 70 to 76 seat jets have roughly MD88 operating numbers per ASM. There will be a niche for them, but as American drops the MD's and leaves us with the highest comparable CASM, the market is ripe for the C Series, or something similar.

The reasons for optimism in 2012 and 2013 are a number of long term initiatives which should begin bearing fruit. We will have the new Atlanta international terminal coming on line just as AirTran/SWA starts capacity adjustments. That should help us both operationally and on the revenue side. Progress is being made on our JFK terminal which should help us in 2013 and network is begining to make noises about bringing a fight for business traffic in LAX. It appears we are ready to take advantage of any disruption in American's operation.

We are under fleeted for a lot of this. Partners will be used to fill far to many holes and we must address that in our negotiations. But, there is enough here to think Delta will have to bring mainline capacity on line and grow staffing.

Operationally, we are running better than we have in years and our targets for 2012 have increased to solid industry leading levels. When you see the resources coming on line to support these levels of performance it looks positive.

The wildcards will be Europe, Fuel and possibly Asia. If Iran tries to block the Strait of Hormuz it would be interesting until there were three more Kilo Class subs on the ocean floor.

 

Record profits in this economy? Imagine how much we would be making if there was some real economic recovery. Time for them to show us the money.

 

Try Denise Milani......big spinners on that airplane.

Btw, 4 md90's in Miami, two in indy with a couple more at the TOC to be taken to indy. One SAS bird delivered to the TOC yesterday will be ready to fly the line in a week. SAS birds are way nicer than China birds. Saudi birds were just dropped in the desert and not protected. Corrosion and sand are bad so I doubt anyone would ever want them. I think nine more MD90's sit in an American desert waiting to be updated. One dc9-10 coming out of the desert too......heading to a museum. Were not getting all the JAL birds right away. JAL needs to backfill due to late deliveries of other a/c. All JAL's spare parts come when they get rid of their last 90.

 

I agree on two points: Operationally we are run better and long term initiatives should bear fruit.

I have been hearing about a pullback in ATL - which goes counter to the DAL I grew up in, but nonetheless it is what I am hearing - specifically in my category a full pullback in ATL with rebasing in NYC.

Additionally,the whole AA thing has to play out. Until that situation solidifies somewhat there can be no strategic forward guessing. I still hear DFW and MIA are in our sights. (not my morbid thoughts, just parroting).

Until our PRASM is below SWAs, our management will like our fleet as is. My opinion.

PS Europe is not a wild card. Greece will default, the euro will tank, then the other weak economies will follow suit. They will go back to their own currencies or completely change the debt laws for the eurozone. Either way, europe is not a wild card. I remember pre-euro, there was a commercial that said something like: "You dont need a single currency, you have mastercard, accepted everywhere." A lot of truth in that statement.

 

Excellent segue!

And for all of you Barney Frank reposters, cut it out!

This post is truly what the L&G is all about.....

over/under/side boob references AND some airplane stuff.

Thanks Hoser!

 

Wasn't that an epic FAIL about 2 years ago?

I want you to keep your seat and also the training/category waterfall ensuing would be darn near catastophic!

 

The only reason the 777 category was a fail in JFK was that its only route was Mumbai - blocked at 17:55 one way. When you tag a few long taxis in there, with the resultant timed out crews, you see why it was a fail. There is no other reason.