He was pretty specific about needing 100-150.

 

Turned down SWA, sorry.

My comment was aimed at dealing with the RJ issue, but first lets look at the refinery. We will see that fuel on the open market. The margin that is paid for that product will effectively zero out the crack spread that we are seeing. However you want to rationalize the books on the refinery, it will allow DAL to zero out about 1.5+ bln a year in expenses. Fuel, RJ, our restorative raises, whatever.

On the RJ issue, there are many ways to get to the end point we all want; DAL flying performed by DAL seniority listed pilots. Forcing the issue, having DAL abandon the CPA's and then pay the penalties is one. Another is a plethora of sunset type of deals where the total RJ count decreases over time, and could possibly be tail number limited. Allowing only half of the jets to be renewed under a new CPA is another. There are many more options to this issue, many of them doable, and all with the ability to pull the flying down without legal exposure to DAL.

On how the refinery helps the RJ's, yes, it could lengthen the bandwidth for DAL parking them. It also would logically take the pressure off of them trying to squeeze more large RJs out of us, and wait for the C-Series as the penalty forgiveness jet. Point is, your are right that it loosens the noose around their necks with regard to to the RJs but the effects of this will be at least a year out. DAL still at this time wants a small RJ solution. Economics are just part of it. I know I would want em gone and use the refinery profit for other things than subsidizing and airframe that cannot efficiently carry our customers.

 

+1000 agree on the WAL guys, and I couldn't have said it better.
The base culture in SLC and LAX is awesome and sets a high bar for Delta pilots everywhere. I can't say I've flown with anyone I would not want to fly with again. I strive to uphold that standard. ;-)

Cheers
George

 

Yep, they want to park a ton of em. They are inefficient, costly, and do not carry the loads they need to. As ED stated, the customers hate em, and we want to find a solution to them.

I am sure they want more 70+ seaters to fill the gap, but they are also looking at the 717 or 320 series as a replacement for these jets. The negotiators will deal with this in the way we have demanded. I suspect we will see something definitive on the mainline jets shortly. On top of this DAL has gate constraint issues with the frequency model, and they need to find a way to keep the same amount of seats to a city while reducing frequency.

 

"Let's park over there on those yellow chevrons by the beach. We can run up the engines to chase off the onlookers, in case the bomb is real..."

 

I've never called for the hotel van in my life. I didn't even know that was a thing that we do.

Regarding the walkaround, 9/10 NY captains do their share. I don't get bent out of shape if the occasional guy is have a "bad knee day." Exercise is good.

 

That meeting was today ... I nearly forgot. OOOHHH lemme throw some popcorn in the Soup Nuker.

 

My theory is the emphasis on punctuation in the Flight Operations Manual can be accurately predicted on a linear graph based on distance from the General Offices.

To test this theory ... along Virginia Ave, you'll hear debates on whether that's a comma, or a semi-colon in paragraph four on page 392. In Anchorage the same discussion would go something like "Is that in the FOM? ... What's an FOM?"*

SLC is in the middle, which is probably a good place to be.

* picking on a non existent base far from Atlanta, intentionally. (wish it was still there)

 

That number has been going around.

Any news on narrow body jets, other than 50 seaters?

 

There are rumors running rampant that they have chosen an airframe. We shall see.