Bucking Bar

Sleepy Ed's dreams of fewer pilots, less capacity and more outsourcing took our valuation down nearly a Billion dollars today.

Anyone notice the messages from today's Q&A:

• Up-gauge outsourcing
• Reduce Capacity
• Not replace retiring employees
• Oil refinery efficiency is the equivalent of a mainline aircraft order
• Reduction in unit costs in the fall

Not mentioned:

• 717's, C Series or anything that might compete with a new RJ.

forgot to bid

More Bacon

What happened to Richard's "Delta pilots fly Delta Aircraft," or whatever the actual quote was?

Although IF the 717s or 319s are in the unreleased TA, I suppose they can't announce them yet.

tsquare

Well since you put that in quotes.. that must be it...

Airframes are not included in any contract. Only the rates at which we will operate them. What do you mean there? And just because we have negotiated rates (CRJ900?) doesn't mean they are coming. We might have negotiated 717 rates (which would be prudent) but that means absolutely NOTHING in terms of what the company will buy. (Insert argument for longevity based type pay rates here)

KC10 FATboy

Ignorance is bliss ...

More Bacon

deleted.........

Sink r8

Viewed another way, he continued to make the same noises he's been making to the analysts. He's already talked about about being "creative" as you pointed out at the last quaterly call, WRT 50-seaters, but hasn't announced specifics. So nothing new there either. If there were any 717's, and they were a follow-on piece to a deal with us (for example, rates must be confirmed through a vote), then he wouldn't have announced it this way either.

The only thing he's done to tip his hand, sort of, is to suggest this deal is designed to reduce 50-seaters. He's not obligated to discuss all it's designed to do.

You're working the tea-lives alittle hard on this one. We all want to know what's going on, so it's normal to connect dots, but I don't think you've got enough info to arrive at a credible picture. I don't blame you for trying: I'm doing the same. My brain's still churning on the SW deferrals.

Bucking Bar

Allow me to re-phrase then ... .

Management is making ALPA's sales job difficult. Today was a tactical blunder. The leaks, which seem to correspond with management's forward looking statements, suggest that leadership is more than a little tone deaf. It is a common fault of autocratic regimes.

Sink r8

OK, I agree. Management is getting ahead of themselves selling to the street the notion that they "have an agreement" with us. That's for sure. It's insulting, and counter-productive.

I don't know if there are still interractions between the company and NC while the MEC deliberates, but it wouldn't surprise me. This isn't a round-about way to suggest I know something, I haven't even heard a hint this might be going on. I just suspect that it could happen. If it did, then the company has given a little bit of leverage to us, as you said earlier today.

As for the leaks, the thing I find most interesting is how they're mostly negative. The rumored deal per JL's newsletter, for example, doesn't seem like it would have legs. What's weird is the things NOT mentioned. For example, what about vacation, trip rigs, etc.? What about the rest of Section 1?

You said you thought management is leaking this stuff, and I don't see how/why. It doesn't serve their purpose. It doesn't serve the union's purpose to enrage the pilot group over the semi-ugly, and the bad, without revealing the good. I think the union wants to produce something they can present to us. And I have to conclude that the NC didn't suffer from a brain hemorrage. Ergo, the deal meets the MEC's requirements, and our own surveys.

It's got to be a political play by some group of people, but not the company or union as a whole.

Lysithea25

Trying not to impatient here but, does anyone else think the longer the MEC deliberates, the higher the chance of them voting it down? Sorta like a jury, usually longer deliberations mean Not Guilty.