Interesting... and I am not doubting you. The past two days I repoed a 200 to DTW and flew downgraded 900 trips and still out here with tommorrow to be determined.

 

I believe it. It may well have switched back, I haven't been around much for Feb. with my recurrents going on and having P3 callout.
At the beginning of winter I was flying a bunch of upgraded Saab flights because they were all having their typical beginning of winter engine intake and timer cautions. Guess completion factor was more important than cost of running a 900 for 10 people to and from AZO.

Any perspective on your part why the 200 captain was the only position left out of the TOWOP?

 

I would have to agree that if they had to furlough, they would have done so by now. The writing is REALLY on the wall when they offer voluntary furloughs, as per the contract. They haven't done that yet, so while it's always possible, I don't believe furloughs are imminent. Further, I would think the company is taking the wait and see approach to see what kind of block hours will be assigned to Mesaba for the summer. An increase would render us staffed appropriately and not over. We always have a traditional summer bump in flying, so I wouldn't be surprised to see us need everyone we've got for the summer and into the future.

As for the saabs in ATL... it's simply a matter of moving resources and the staffing has nothing to do with it. They'll upgage flying in the hubs and shuffle 200s and Pinnacle 200s around and maybe even 900s to get the slack in the saab schedule to make it happen.

 

I don't know if we can drop the F bomb just yet I think the company is just trying to see how many people they can get off the payroll to save a few dollars in April. They knew what the staffing would be when Delta gave the 10 900's to ASA so at that point if they thought they needed to furlough I don't think they would have waited.

I also think the main reason they are doing TOWOP for almost all positions is because starting in April they will take 7 of our planes a month for new paint. I am on a trip with a senior 900 CA right now and he was told by the "boss man" that come this summer there will be lots and lots more flying for us.

 

The real story according to the big wigs told to pilots at a recent ground event is that they have no clue what is going to happen. They claim to be over staffed 80-100 currently. I believe them when they say they don't know what Delta has in store for us. I don't think the writing is on the wall for anything because Delta really does not know what they are going to do. No one has taken the early out yet and 31 people took the last TOWOP. It seems for the current time there would be no reason to let people go when people keep taking voluntary time off.

 

True. I'd bet that if they needed more people cut without the cost of furlough the best way would be to implement the proposed "half-time lines" I bet there would be a lot more takers on that than the TOWOP or voluntary furlough. I'd probably take HTL especially in June or July. But of course that's when they'd probably not offer any time off's. Just look at vacation slots, holiday weeks and the summer months always have a lot less than say Oct/Nov or Feb/Mar....

 

Yeah there was all this talk of HTL about a month ago what happened to that idea? Is it something the company is still thinking about?

 

5600//////

 

???????????

 

84/17 is 4.93 and traditional staffing on airplanes on the captain side has always around here been 5 Captains a plane so it seems to be staffed right. There are 8 others on the 200 not available to bid but there are always several rotating in and out but none on TOWOP. Also I get used just about every day on reserve the past 2 months even though I am last out and have a bunch below me. Back to build up, If I am going to be used this much might as well get paid!