Delta starts cutting RJ service
 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/5361678.html

ATL-CRP asa flights

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story....pub=1&div=News

Tupelo -ATL service asa flight


Comair just canceled a captain vacancy award so I would guess comair routes are next to be cut.

It hasn't been canceled yet...it is however being delayed. So we'll see.

Yea I read it was delayed and not cancelled, I think DAL will cut some EMB-135s as I did hear that they are no longer going to use the jungle jet for DCI flying. ASA flies to some Po-dunk cities anyhow, and if DAL wants to expand internationally out of JFK, they are going to need feeders, e.g. Comair, CHQ, Freedom (eek).

Well DG....those podunk cities are always full....so eat it...hahah good to see ya in atl bud

hey it was good seeing you too, how are ur neighbors?

It would be nice if they trimmed Freedom's routes lol since they seem to underbid everyone.

The 135's are already scheduled on thier way out at the end of '08, Bedford has said he already has buyers for the entire fleet.

This is why they'll probably be the last ones to be trimmed.

DG I agree cut Freedom routes and give them no Freedom give Comair the routes and Hender......Nebraska football sux!!!! Go UCONN if this is the right person I think it is.

I'm sorry but, does this kind of give anyone a feeling of unease? I'm an ASA guy, fairly new, but I got a little seniority. Obviously if they are cutting flights then eventually they will start trimming the fat around the pilot groups as well as other employees. You always think, "someone's got to do the flying. People just have to fly." But I guess in this situation they are just cutting people off and leaving them without the option of flying. Then again, the average passenger was never really very loyal to the airlines themselves so screw em. Is it something to be worried about when it comes to job security or am I just over reacting?

I am hoping to go to ASA in a couple months, and I am a little concerned to say the least. Hopefully everything will be okay though.

The answer to this is a somewhat lengthy macro economic discussion but here goes. After the major airline scope clauses survived 9/11 and all the bankruptcies the role and therefore size of the regional sector was more than likly forever fixed to an upper gage or seat level. (roughly 70 seats) If the scope clauses were ever to be circumvented it would have been then. Since the only way to increase aggregate passenger count of the National Airspace System is to increase seat count on existing flight frequency, (number of flights the system can handle is basically fixed and all the fancy free flight and GPS direct in the world can't get around the fact that at some point we all have to get in a line three miles behind each other a land on fixed number of runways) the utility of the RJ will continue to wain as passenger demand increases. (not to mention the horrendous seat mile efficiency made worst by $100 oil) This is evidenced by the fact that no one has built a 50 seater in almost 3 years and the feds are considering minimum seat counts for aircraft arriving in the most congested locales. The demand is now for a 100 seat jet, a segment which is largely owned by major airline pilots. These facts coupled with the fee for departure, race to the bottom scenario means that unless regionals can find something else to do with their aircraft, they will be relegated to ruthlessly compete for a larger piece of an ever-shrinking pie. My guess is this will result in the sector returning to its mid 90's level with a few large players doing the lift. Someone has to fly to Valdosta, GA, the question is: who will it be in 5-10 years?

Of course one more aerial visit by our camel loving friends would delay all this a decade or so.

I'd say you and all the other regional drivers don't have anything to be worried about as the attrition will come from the top of the seniority list due to pilots upgrading to the Majors, rather than furloughs at the bottom. Hiring may slow at some locations but pick up at others. If you are worried about losing feeder service in ATL in favor of JFK, count the number of Delta tails on E concourse some time... there are plenty of international departures out of the southeast US. From a passenger stand point ATL is a much better international gateway than JFK and there are plenty of southerners that need to hitch a ride on a big ole jet plane to get around the world.

We all get the point, but you didn't quite have to put it in those words.

I'm sorry, how would you have put it? How bout' a comment on the substance of the text.

gotta love the ol' USA, lets all be respectful to the people that killed thousands on 9/11...............

Of course, Saab! We must always remain Politically Correct ::gasp:: Lest we offend somebody or anybody :rolleyes:

I think he got it right.

Generally speaking, I don't think this country has ever really been afraid of offending. :cool:

You guys are right, everyone who is Arab is a terrorist. I don't know what I was thinking. I have no respect for those responsible for 9/11 and Im not suggesting tolerance or PC for them. But those who might simply look like them or be from the same place don't deserve to be lumped into the same category by being called camel loving friends, that's all.

Not everyone who is Arab is a terrorist, but everyone who was a terrorist on 9/11 was Arabic... so referring to the 9/11 terrorists as "camel loving friends" would be an accurate description; accurate in the sense of their background, and accurate in the sense that it carries a demeaning connotation. Do you think we should refer to them as, "those nice Arabic men who killed thousands of people"? Of course not. Never once did anyone here direct a negative comment toward the Arabic community. It was all directed at the terrorists themselves, which it should.

Enough of that - what was the ACTUAL subject of this thread? State of the Regional market? Discuss....

Back to the main topic....

I was going through the meet and greet at Delta for the interview and some of the people I met were already stating that the Delta feeders were over hiring. This was back in July. These were not marketing but operational people. Bid Daddy D was aware of this. What was your feeder telling you in July?

I was being kind and glib by using "camel loving friends" If I was to be totally accurate I would have said "psychopathic islamic murderers who killed innocent people and ruined my career all because I don't think muhammad is that great and I let my wife drive a car" There, I'm sure that description doesn't apply to you so get over yourself.:rolleyes:

I like that second discription better myself

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't have said it better.

Are you kidding me! :eek: Try making a movie like "Airplane" again, and let us know how far you get :rolleyes:

What was it - Operation "Eternal Justice" I think, that we changed to "Enduring Freedom" because it offended the very ones we were bombing?

does it count as driving if she continually gets losts and goes 40 mph on the highway because she thinks its safe (she is scared)?

Absolutely Perfect! Damn Fanatical Islamic Camel Jockeys!

Well it seems as though management never feels comfortable with the level of staffing when it comes to the amount of pilots the company currently employs. Seems to me that on top of filling all the airplanes with crews they won't feel comfortable unless they always have someone to furlough. So to answer your question they say they can't hire enough and have no plans to stop looking. Maybe they should check out the forums.;)

Im over it, and Im not going to discuss this particular topic any further.

dont worry i doubt any of these guys are rascist. every one on here seems to hate everybody equally...

Lol....nope im racist ;)

Actually the only people i tend to hate equally is...umm...Passengers...lol except the hot ones

I have said it before and I will say it again...being politicaly correct is killing this country. Im all for racial profiling...hell my familiy is from Colombia so I am automatically a freaking drug lord. Israel has been profiling as a means of security for years, when was the last time they had a jet used as a wmd?

Don't take your dollie and go home...... I'm still looking for someone to comment on the substance of my original post.

i respectfully disagree. first of all, i dont think you appreciate being profiled, and if you do then youve essentially sold your people out. as a muslim and an arab flying for an airline and serving in the armed forces, i will not just accept that type of lazy solution of racial profiling. political correctness has nothing to do with any of this. its protection of your freaking rights which apparently you are willing to give up. theres better ways to solve this problem.

i know this was way off topic but just had to respond to that comment.

I said I wasn't going to discuss the topic of racism anymore because this is an aviation forum. Perhaps I was over sensitive to your comment, perhaps not. You asked that I "get over myself" and most everyone else shared your sentiment so I dropped it.
Your orignial post was an excellent take on what this industry is going through and I agree with you on that 100%. I also agree that another act of terrorism would surely throw things way out of whack, eventhough I disagreed with the way you worded it. But thats neither here nor there.
To further answer the original poster, I don't think DL axing a few podunk routes on RJ's out of ATL is a big deal at all, certainly nothing to be nervous about. In fact I would expect to see alot of tooling with equipment especially if the price of oil doesn't go down. DL learned a big lesson over the last 6 years or so about how flawed its previous business model was especially on the domestic side of things.

Alright, truce. And you're also correct in saying that this is nothing to get too exercised about in the short term. However, might be considered in someone's decision as to where to try to make a career long term. Here is the latest from the horse's mouth on the subject. Although he doesn't specify what RJ's are being removed.


December 10, 2007


https://connect.delta.com/f5-w-68747...06/Richard.jpg Richard Anderson reaffirmed that we still expect to see profit sharing payouts early next year despite the impact of high fuel prices on our fourth quarter financial performance. In his weekly Right from Richard employee update, he said we expect profit sharing payments to be made in mid-February.
“We will still have a good profit sharing payout,” Richard said. “It is scheduled for Feb. 14. We have been accruing for profit sharing each quarter, and it’s based in the full-year performance, not one individual quarter. We may lose money in the fourth quarter, principally because of fuel, but that won’t affect our ability to still pay out a profit sharing check on Feb. 14.”
Richard also recapped comments that Ed Bastian, president and CFO, made last week, laying out some of the steps we’re taking in the face of record high fuel prices.
“We’re taking a proactive response to high fuel costs by making strategic domestic capacity reductions,” Richard said. “We’re going to take about 35 regional jets out of the schedule. We’re going to be very mindful of our capital spending and we’re going to be very careful about hiring overhead positions in the corporate headquarters. We’re not going to have layoffs. [Higher costs] will cause us to not hire as many people as we were going to hire, and as people leave the company through attrition, we won’t be backfilling in the noncustomer-facing positions. Our goal is to be certain that our airline stay profitable and that you have a secure place to work.”

Hey Mr. Anderson... when you come asking for paycuts, how big of a paycut will YOU take?

And by pay-cut, I don't mean bonus.

DAL can't decrease ASA block hours with major penalties. Now if DAL reduces 2 block hours by reducing service to a city then they must increase serves or begin it somewhere else. Otherwise DAL will be in breach of their contract with SKYW Inc which would cost DAL $145M. Now from what I understand is that they can decrease ASA block hours but increase SKW which still counts as a wash, 1:1. The contract is for guaranteed flying through 2020, for both SKW & ASA, with increases in flying based but certain factors, factors that SKYW Inc. has had no problems meeting with SKW. That’s one of the many reasons why SKW has received the new DAL flying and ASA hasn’t had anything beyond the 8 (?) CR7’s from Comair.

People seem to forget that SKYW Inc.’s contract with DAL is the most iron clad (meaning loop holes) of all their code share contracts and it has the biggest penalties. JA & Co crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s when they purchased ASA. I’m not saying DAL can’t get out of it but with SKW operating with one of the lost cost per seat per mile it just would make sense for DAL to incur the $145M in penalties in order to bring in another carrier with a lower cost.

IMO, they’re probably going to cut less profitable CR2 (ASA) routes and add more profitable CR9 (SKW) routes. But hey, in the end DAL will do what they have to do to stay above water.

I certainly could be wrong, but if I recall correctly I thought it was a % guarantee not a block hour guarantee. 85% of Delta feed in ATL had to be done by ASA, and Skywest was guaranteed a certain percentage of all DAL feed. As long as that percentage holds I think they can reduce the flying as necessary. Anywho, 35 RJ's are being removed from Delta service. The question is where. Also, they can't just add more 900's as Delta's scope clause regulates that. Plus they would have to be in the 76 seat configuration.