80KC, I thought you were smarter than this ...

On the other thread, asking people to intellectually defend a position, and then pushing back when they respond with racial slurs or unsupportable points is not in the same league as "advocating for." I remain undecided on that issue.

As for scope, sure we have issues ... But, Buzz, just wondering how do y'all like the Air France JV ... And Virgin Atlantic? ... And aren't SKW and Compass doing a lot of DAL's expanded SEA flying? Sounds like your scope is airtight...

 

Delta is replacing Compass on routes they had Compass start on. These new routes will be taken over by Delta in due time. The regionals will only be shrinking in the near future and Delta will grow.

 

True Dat. Delta is/has acquiring 11 more 717s. 4 from some Uzbekistan airways or something and 8 others from some Asian carrier. All this is unannounced of course. But hey it is more mainline airframes.

 

I know you are new to the industry and I suspect your knowledge of Delta scope is limited to what you read here. Clearly however you understand that network is important. The scope Delta has with AK/KLM is serving us well. We fly 55% of the alliance flights with AF/KLM flying 45%. We are adding UK flying with the JV inked with virgin. Currently Delta pilots fly more flights across the pond then any other airline.
On the domestic side the scope changes have required the company to shift large blocks of flying back to the mainline. We are hiring 130 pilots a month for that reason. Anytime Delta puts a RJ into SEA they have to replace that flight with a mainline flight somewhere else. They can't add RJ flying and in fact have to shrink it. Alaska was the glaring hole in our domestic scope. Delta management wanted to expand that relationship but Alaska did not want to give Delta the priority they needed for international feed. Both sides made business choices they feel are for the best. It certainly is turning out well for the Delta pilot group. We have more then doubled the size of the SEA base since 08 and it will be triple the size this time next year.
The problem you have at Alaska which most of your pilots fully recognize is that you have scoped one aircraft type and have very little protection otherwise. If Alaska decides to buy a 140 seat C series they can put it up for bid. Your going to have to beat Horizon, Skywest and Republic in a auction. That hurts the entire industry because it's almost certainly going to result in a B scale if you retain the flying. We all hope that does not happen because it drags the entire industry down. Those of us who have been here a few years have seen all this before. At Delta we once had to make a choice to lower our block hour cots on the 737-200 to SWA levels or lose the flying to Comair.
Many of your pilots advocated hard for real scope in your last contact. Time will tell how things turn out. Perhaps Alaska management will be very benevelant and things will go well. Let's hope so!

 

IMHO, I believe that any merger between DAL and AS is likely not going to happen because of the current overlap in route structure. I'm not sure that it would be approved by the Judiciary Commitee. It's been increasingly more difficult for each carrier's merger petition (NWA-DAL, CAL-UAL, AMR-USA).

 

I agree, and the 30 year fences keeping AS pilots on the 737 and smaller would only cause pain.

 

Guys, I think all f15 was saying was the rumors are that dal and alaska well just coexist in sea and that instead of the two moving towards each other they're moving further apart as AA is becoming the larger partner. So the chances dal and alaska will jump in bed are low.


we are basically friends with limited benefits, "merging" isn't one of those benefits. More of a escort without the fun.

 

Say what? It looks like DAL mainline has the least overseas flights of the big 3. Only 145 widebodies compared to UAs 220+ and AA even more than that. Plus AA and UA fly quite a few narrowbodies across the pond as well (not that pilots or pax enjoy it).

 

There, FYP

 

He might be talking about SEA. I think I read that DL has more long haul international flights out of SEA than all of the other carriers combined.