tsquare

And now that it is locked up, someone please remember to turn out the lights on your way out.

NuGuy

Meh. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say "It's always something"...


Nu

tsquare

Zactly. We ain't got no big airplanes.. never had no big airplanes.. ain't gonna get no big airplanes.

I hate Florida... just sayin'

sailingfun

We still hold delivery positions for something like 30 777's. Sadly we have let the last 10 or so lapse. They require a 18 month confirmation. Delta is happy with its wide body fleet at the moment according to Anderson. The focus is the new interiors on the 767's which from a passenger standpoint will make them brand new. If you have not seen the first one completed its actually perhaps the best interior I have seen on any jet in any fleet.

johnso29

How much life is left in our 767's? I'm sure it's a good amount, I just don't know & am curious. Thanks.

Timbo

I think we started getting the first ER's around 1991?

So...if that one is still flying, it's already 20 years old. No matter, I'm sure Richard will find a suitable repalcement...like a 737-1000-ER, with 6 lie-flat seats.

Bucking Bar

We do have a strategic planning group with some very good folks manning the positions. However, they don't act autonomously. Politics drive what gets studied, if the results are published and how the results are published. To the extent our union refuses to perform its "homework," it is by design. You are exactly correct that this is the reason management seems to always get the scope relief it "needs."* Management is driven by the numbers, while we're making up false threats & scarecrows. (like Gloopy's DFR theory)

Worse, we write scope with rosy predictions of our future. In reality, scope is tested during periods of economic crises. People make fun of those of us who would like to take a risk management approach to our job protection provisions. IMHO you want Chicken Little ensuring your contract's provisions will be operative if the Sky does Fall!

We are fortunate to have some very smart and experienced people serving in ALPA who can do a pretty good job with "T-LAR" (that looks about right) engineering within the political structure of the union.

The lack of action based on objective analysis was one of the reasons that I considered DPA and still do listen to what TC puts out. Unfortunately, they've taken the worst aspects of ALPA's political head in the sand approach and expanded it to include inaccurate information as a tenet in their political platform. If ALPA is a C student, the DPA never returned from recess and is behind the school house smoking a joint while complaining about the teachers.



* In the past, management ordered jets which exceeded scope limits and were able to get scope liberalized "just in time" to take delivery. This pattern is exactly why the current orders for next generation small mainline jets off the property is highly alarming, despite the denials that these airplanes will be outsourced.

Bucking Bar

Gloopy,

Actually, if you graph out aircraft pay versus productivity the big jets are mostly underpaid relative to their smaller peers. Airlines like GoJets and Colgan fall off the chart at the bottom.

But, what we were told in our last concessionary scope agreement was that management would not operate the jets at mainline regardless of the cost structure. There were other costs involved that outweighed pilot costs. In response, it is my opinion ALPA should treat unity like a religion, or like a Marine treats an injured soldier in the field. Management needs to understand we will not abandon a member. If one pilot has a problem, then 12,000 pilots have a problem and it is going to be YOUR problem in a BIG way.

ALPA needs to get back to our evolutionary roots ... UNITY.

Look at it this way. Humans were about the least likely animal to take over the planet. We lack enough fur to make it through the winter. A house cat has better claws than we do for catching food. It was not until we started using our brains to get along and work together than we stopped running from animals intent on eating us, that we learned to hunt and eat them. Genetically we are hired wired to work together, except for this strange mutation called "pilot."

If we could get unified we would be chasing wooly mammoths off cliffs in no time.

Boomer

Unfortunately, some have learned it's less work to just kill a dude and take his mammoth.

Old UCAL CA

Possibly.

However, with the exception of our large brains which have allowed us to adapt to our surroundings without going through the evolutionary process for physical adaptation, humans aren't much different than other mammalian herd grazers or pack predator species. If you give them enough space, food, and females to fornicate for propagating the species, they aren't going to move an inch or lift a finger (claw, hoof, etc.) except to take a c##p.

Pilots are about comfort and survival. There are pilots who are comfortable and there are those who are not. The center of the herd is comfortable. The very old, weak, very young and periphery individuals are not and have a greater chance of getting picked off.

Unity is a great "rally" word. However, even if the herd is "unified," a number of "edge" individuals are going to get eaten.