I really think they are going to change this. It's costing the company money.

Tom

UGBSM says 15 years to Capt...any other current DAL folks agree/disagree??

yes, I do. My bet is a new hire today will be a captain around 10-11 years.

PDX at one time also? Could be wrong.

I think that New Hires will be CAPT's in a lot less than that. I would say the five year mark with the 195. The thing is that most may not want it because it would be a pay cut.

So is it certain that delta is looking to downsize in the aircraft seat size (100 pax)? From what little i know, it looks kind of like Continental with all those narrow bodies and few big boys? Seems kinda inverse in the sense, that they are saying international international

Any 100 seat jets that Delta adds will be in addition to the current fleet makeup. The 88/90s will likely be replaced with 737s and/or the next generatioin Boeing narrowbody.

Check Delta's stats on this site: 112 wide bodies, and all but 24 of them are slated to fly international routes. Add to that the ETOPS 757s we're getting from AMR this summer, which will fly to Western Europe. I'd say that Delta looks like an international airline.

If we get the 195, I'll bet that we'll have 3 year captains on it. Look back to how junior Delta Express went, when we had it.

Yah I'd definately agree with Delta being a large international carrier, last i heard they had the most flights cross the north atlantic. Which reminds me of another question, for you international guys, do you usually do random routing, blue spruce routes or utilize the north atlantic track routes? Just curious because of a class we take involving long range nav. What does a typical T7 trip look like?