you see, that makes sense..meaning they wont do it.

It is that time of year!

Seriously, I think merit is just pointing how the legacy carrier can mess your airline's contract. He does not wish any harm on Skywest pilots. I don't either. We've been jerked around by CAL and it's hurting us. I think it was more of a beware than a "Ha! Gotcha!"

The industry as we all know is cyclical. Lets just hope this is the bottom and there will be little or no job loss as a result. In the meantime, what is driving oil up this high?? Don't give me that supply and demand BS..

I think pilot cutbacks are a real possibility at SKW as well as some others in the industry. As oil skyrockets and the economy slows the first capacity cuts are coming at the regionals. It appears that cutbacks are already outpacing pilot attrition, and from all news accounts we have only seen the start of this process.

Of course!:rolleyes: Comair will get the shaft again, since we are DL's red headed step children!:mad:

I would like to think that if it's coming to this, which it might be, they'd go the voluntary leave of absence route as opposed to furloughing. If they furloughed, they'd be cutting guys at the bottom of the payscale, but if they offer leaves of absence, maybe they'd save some money in the middle of the payscale.

I'd be all over that if they let me. Then I could keep my number, get a real job, and make real money.

And by the way, I don't think oil is going to stay this expensive for very long. Part of the reason it's so high is that it's one of few decent investment options. It may take a year, but at some point people are going to be speculating on things other than oil. Also, the weak dollar hasn't helped things too much, either. I think the whole world, save some tourists, is just about fed up with the weak dollar. I'd expect the slide to stop, if not reverse itself, in the near future. That ought to help oil prices come down some.

I guess my point is that it's rough out there, but the sky isn't falling just yet.

would they still do this even with no financial trouble...I mean how come express jet isn't letting people go and they are losing millions with no end in sight...?

Ha!! Nice. You ever put a peep in the microwave? Awesome.

Your right, they won't because there can only be 36 (i think that number's right) 900's (configured to a max of 76 seats) in service per the DAL scope clause.

It's pretty cool to microwave peeps, but the result is nowhere near as satisfying as when you've got silverware in the microwave.

To think that SKW will never furlough is ridiculous. If DAL cuts them back below their guarantees then we'll gain $125M plus lost revenue unless Jerry renegotiates the contract; but I can only see him doing this if, in the long run, it better cements SKW Inc position with DAL.
Also remember that SKW has more UAL departures than DAL and UAL’s not cutting us back like DAL is……………………..yet. SKW has just over 1700 departures and almost 1100 of them are for UAL, unless you through ASA into the mix which takes us up to around 2550 total departures. If Merit you are meaning SKW Inc then the thread should reflect the "Inc" so that it includes possible furloughs at ASA.

As for the cut in flying, this is industry wide and it will affect everyone, SKW Inc isn't DAL's only 50 seat operator.

Also if SKW can work their way around furloughing then they will. Especially when you think that most of the new hires have ended up on the EMB, we are incredibly short staffed on the EMB and our flying on the EMB is NOT BEING CUT due to its profitability. If SKW furloughed they will have to boot some JR RJ FO's down to the EMB and this will cost them a lot of money but if the numbers are right it could happen.

You can rest assure they’ll do the number crunching and they’ll do what's best for the company, but I'd expect them to try to carry as many of us as possible and use some of that $900+M they have in the bank.

Why do I think they will do this instead of furloughing? Well that’s what they did after Sept. 11th and it’s how they’ve been able to keep the Kool-Aid flowing.