seamonster

With all the doom and gloom these days I thought pilots might want some good news. "I spoke with someone in the know," the start of any good thread. This person told me that he is working on the training program for the new hires that are coming soon to Delta, with gas at low prices. I think that this is, if anything, something positive. I also was recently told that if everything turns south the Delta pilots can also flow back to Mesaba. Is this true?

Doug Masters

We can flow back to Compass. As far hiring...I doubt it. In another thread, soothsayer ACL65 is talking about dispacements. I would be suprised to see new hires on property.

Free Bird

Who knows.

I've been told that staffing is fairly close to where it needs to be. We just have pilots on the wrong airplanes. I have also heard from a couple that we will see a displacement announcement in the next couple of weeks, thus, correcting above problem.

If our staffing is close to where it needs to be and the economy takes a turn for the better, hiring might be a possibility later in the year. I too think it's doubtful that we will see any new hires in the first 3 quarters of this year. As usual be ready to be surprised.

sevenfiveseven

We can flow down to most of Compass' seats and 18 (or so) of Mesaba. Correct?

DAL4EVER

I would be shocked if we do any hiring this year. I would be less shocked by displacements and 100-150 furloughs. That said, oil prices may help alleviate that somewhat. Sadly, I took a 757 to Victorville the other day and saw at least 8 DAL 767s and another 757 parked there. Every plane parked is around 15-20 surplus positions. A thought that did not escape me on the flight out.

Denny Crane

I, too, will be surprised if we do any hiring this year. That being said, if the FD side of the pilot equation is close to properly staffed and the FN side is short 300-500, why wouldn't they be thinking of hiring? And then throw in any retirements in the next year on top of that....it all depends on whether we are properly staffed or not.........

Denny

acl65pilot

I think people need to realize that this is DAL we are talking about. They make a lot of knee jerk reactions.
We are overstaffed for the Q1 09 flying by 350+ pilots. If there is not another pull down, we will be relatively short this summer. (That is just a guess looking at staffing vs the flying. No hard facts)
DAL is traditionally quite fat in the winter and short in the summer, that is the way we do things. Word from crew resources before I left for my vacation was that there would be a decent amount of displacements. Why Because Flt Ops needs to cover the 88 flying. You ask why don't they hire? Well, they want to, but have been told it is not going to happen for at least four months. (Do your math on that one. What expires in April??) Also we have a lot of union votes that are coming to a head. It looks real bad to have those unionized pilots hiring when other groups are shrinking!
How do we solve it? Well we eat the cost of a short term displacement. That is where it appears their line of thinking is going. I think that it is costly, and a lot cheaper to carry the pilot costs in the mid term than to displace and retrain someone in six to nine months to fill a position that is adequately staffed now.
Fact is, that as with the last AE, where they are headed in their line of thinking may not be where the AE ends up. With what I have heard over the last two months, there are going to be some displacements. My guess would be no more than 100 to the ATL 88B. Also, I think that you will see some NYC 88 displacements as that flying is getting pulled down.
Now, this is a short term solution. When we get past SOC, things will be shifted again, and that is when a lot of us are going to be trying to find which way up is.
If I get a hard answer, I will post it.

sailingfun

The 2 Jan code a phone has some info. Sounds like some modest displacements to cover the MD-88 flying. 4 Maddogs are coming out of the desert. The first two were picked up last week. They are also bringing a 757 and a 767 out. All these aircraft have to go to major overhaul as they come out. We are fat this winter because there are extensive mods going on the international fleet. 18 7ER's are getting winglets taking about 2 weeks of downtime per aircraft and the 400's are getting a new business class with lie flat seats.

Justdoinmyjob

Displacement bid out on icrew. total of 239 positions.

vacancies
CA-48 FO-191
Surplus
CA-126 FO-113

Scoop

In total numbers it is a wash - dead even, but we lose some Captain positions and gain the same amount of FO positions, so overall I think its a net negative for pilots. With that being said, with all the doom and gloom lately I was expecting a lot worse.

Scoop