Hey DELTA, if you want more 70 seaters...
 

Fly Them At Mainline!!

Why aren't you guys/gals insisting on this, instead of selling more scope? (Bring the jobs back to mainline and your advancement will be much quicker.)

That's conventional wisdom, but is it true?

APA, UAL and CAL don't allow 76 seaters in the small portion of their scope. How has career progression worked out at each one of those carriers?

APA - furloughs
UAL - furloughs
CAL - furloughed in 2008, recalled, slow hiring of furloughed UAL pilots
DAL - no furloughs, small (300) hiring in 2010.

Why is it that the airline with the "weakest" small jet scope never furloughed and the tighter guys did?

DAL hired 300 in 2010? That is a lot for one year. How long did it take to get them through training?

That's not even a burp for one year. In the 80's we hired on average over 600 per year. In the 90's we hired over 500 per year, and that was pre-merger. The system can handle way more than that.

So the key to mainline hiring is outsourcing a fleet of DC9-10's in numbers equal to the size of the former Northwest Airlines fleet? How many will you hire when you outsource the MD-88 in the next TA?

Nope, but you know that.

As a regional guy care to answer the original question on conventional wisdom?:rolleyes: Maybe you have some additional facts for us to consider to support the position you've advocated here in the past. I'm not trying to be argumentative here...show me a better path, one that actually works, and I'll help get us there. But we've got to start from where we are, with our current contract and company, not from where you wish we would be.

Sure, no problem! Is there any other heavy lifting that Delta pilots can do to improve YOUR next contract at YOUR airline?

I don't think Delta hired because of the large RJs, I think it was mostly the early retirements plus Delta smart plan of buying older, used airplanes in the down turn. United outsources the same plane types and range, just with different seating, so I doubt it is the answer.

I'm not disagreeing with your premise, but the original poster said "bring back jobs to mainline and your advancement will be much quicker." I provided examples of airlines that have those jobs at their mainline...and at each one they had furloughs and no advancement.

Yes, the early retirement program helped, but we didn't retire as many as we hired that year.

Again with the hiring due to DALPA's scope clause. Could it be the primary reason DAL did not furlough in the second half of '00's is because about 2300 pilots early retired in 2003-2005?

How many RJ's does the SWAPA scope allow, and how many pilots did SWA furlough?

There are many reasons an airline expands or contracts. Scope is just one of those reasons. To state as you do above that "the" reason (by omission of any other reason) is misleading.