I'm about 200 away and feel the same way brother

biggest problem is this round, we got 9 airplanes, looks like we're going to upgrade 4-5 captains and 2 of those are ULTRA senior FOs in the top 500 on the master list that decided .... "OOOOOooo I feel like upgrading all of a sudden."

I'm with you both but right now for me I'm just hoping I get my medical back. Anyway those senior FO's might be lifers who do not want to be scheduling's ***** and go straight in as a line holder. It sucks for a lot of us junior guys on both sides of the seat but c'est la vie.

This is my primary question! How is it we are taking an additional 9 airframes with no reduction in the 200 fleet for 3 years but we have a net increase of only 4 captain positions???

Not sure about IAD, but we have been fat on captains in DTW since we lost those 8 a/c earlier this year. Most of the reserves blocking less than 5 hours a month. Actually it's been extremely slow for reserve FOs as well.

Because those 200s are not staying in the Delta system and the announcement for new flying hasn't been made yet. For all we know, Skywest could get those 25 aircraft.

What 25 aircraft?

IAD has been understaffed since the day it opened and only gotten worse (FO and CA) We could use another 10 per seat and MAYBE be ok... NO clue how we're getting more flying in IAD without new airplanes, those 200s are doing 7-8 flights a day and most are going t - u every other day for one reason or another. They're just being flown to death. More flying? need a LOT more pilots

There are more planes to be allocated between us and SKYW for delta. The contracts have yet to be finalized. Hopefully we get more airframes, ie 50/50 like this round went between the two companies.

How do you know no reduction for 3 years? Everything I've seen has said the reduction comes BEFORE 2015. That means the reduction could be this year, we just don't know.

The airplanes are all under contract until 2015. Delta cannot pull them before then unless A) They pay a sizeable penalty to L-ASA or B) L-ASA (SKW) agrees to early termination if newer larger aircraft replacements are negotiated.

Truth.

Also, it's rumored that the United TA will move in the Delta direction regarding scope, and this will speed up the 50-seater to 70-seater conversion. A pretty reliable authority over at the GO has stated that as things stand with the merger and the state of the discussions with the XJT folks, ERJs are going to be traded in for large CRJs to be flown by the ASA group (and, of course, the combined New ExpressJet group if the XJT MEC starts seeing things the St George way). Inc is, afterall, the largest CRJ operator in the world and enjoys the associated unit cost benefits as a result. They're making it sound like the ATL schoolhouse is going to be *very* busy in 2013. This is why they're keeping the IP force pretty fat and not furloughing them back to the line as they did back in 09.