Good point T! You're absolutely right; they've gotten to where they are today with that running scared mentality.

 

Yeah yeah yeah.. and we all declared bankruptcy and all that crap. Nobody cares about that. It is irrelevant. They are worried now. If they weren't.. why has it been three years since SWAPA signed a contract? Where's the love? hmmmmmm?

Compete. If you're so good.

Oh... and FWIW... thanks for the 717s. You'll be seeing them again at DAL. (Apologies to the Airtran guys)

 

Delta (DL) #2255 ? 13-Oct-2014 ? KATL - KDAL ? FlightAware

Seeing this does put a smile on my face. Anderson wasn't kidding!

 

Yes, you can thank Southwest for that. I doubt you will be seeing it past January though.


Southwest Airlines Co. said Wednesday it has agreed to let Delta use one of its gates to operate Delta’s five daily flights to and from its home base of Atlanta. United Airlines Inc. will lend ticket counters and other operational space.

After that, Delta will have to persuade one of the three carriers with Love Field gates to continue making room for its Atlanta flights.

“We have let Delta know that we are willing to potentially accommodate them on a portion of a gate through Jan. 6, 2015, in order to avoid inconveniencing passengers booked on Delta flights from Love Field during that time,” Southwest vice president and general counsel Mark Shaw said Wednesday evening.

Delta to keep flying from Love Field ? at least for a few months more | Dallas Morning News

 

Convenient of you to mention SWA not being able to bend their employee groups over like Delta did you guys in bankruptcy. Doubt anyone there wishes they had that opportunity. That said, perhaps the SWA guys have their goals set a little higher than 4/8/3/3, or whatever pitiful raise the majority bit on at DL. There's plenty of "love" between the employees and management, but labor contracts with a billion+ dollar price tag don't come easy or quickly.

If your definition of love is jumping all over a mediocre contract TA, then I'd prefer not to have any. I think most non-Delta pilots would agree.

 

And how long have they been waiting for a contract? Every year, inflation however fortunately low.. eats into their earnings. But I'll betcha that 4/8/3/3 would be fine with them... Of course I could be wrong on that, but they have not ever to my knowledge had that kind of contract. Hopefully shoelu will chime in on that. Either way though, inflation still exists, and when the bubble starts to burst, it will get bigger. And then where will a contract that is stuck in limbo be getting you? 0/0/0/0/0/0/25/5/5 is worth a helluva lot less than 4/8/3/3... and start again. It's just math, but that seems to be mythical on these boards.

Oh, and haven't you heard? All ours are cost neutral.

But this thread wasn't about that anyway. I really couldn't care less what they do on their contract as long as they raise some kind of bar. What this thread is about is their government blessed monopoly at one airport. I'm guessing that there will be a lawsuit involved at some point in time and access to other carriers that will really compete with them will be granted. But for now enjoy the Delta 717 service.

 

I'd take 4/8/3/3 as long as it involved retro pay which has multiple past precedents. Of course we are not trying to dig our way out from a 42% pay cut, if we were I'm not sure that would have gotten my yes vote.

There very well may be a lawsuit at some point, but the 5 party agreement is very clear. There are no common use gates at Love, they are now and will continue to be spoken for. The city of Dallas can force other airlines to be accommodated by the current gate owners but only if those gates are not fully utilized which is identified as 5 turns or 10 flights a day. If those minimums are met no one can force the gate owners to share their gates.

Delta had every right to raise objections when they were not allowed gate space in the current situation. Although both United and VA have announced service that will fulfill the stipulations of full utilization, they are not currently offering that service which leaves room for Delta to use the gates they formally had access to. If all parties begin flying the schedules they have put forth in January, all gates will be "fully utilized" and Delta will no longer be accommodated.

 

Thanks for the contract info, that is what I figured. You got to where you are by taking small regular bites of an apple, not by gorging yourself when there are two. (For which I congratulate your group on as it has been far more successful than swinging for the fence everything you come up for contracts.)

As to the second part of the post: So how then is DAL any different than LGA? You had no slot rights there, and convinced Schumer that it was in the best interest of the consumer for you to get them hence our mired down deal with USAir. IMHO, that set the precedence, and SWA should be forced to divest some of those gates in the interest of competition. Probably won't happen because for some strange reason you are still the industry darlings, but it is a clear double standard. I'll betcha we will still retain those 5 flights/day after the dust settles, but any more will take a lot of work.

 

To go off topic.
Maybe southwest airlines is owed some reciprocity after having been forced to deal with the right amendment for 30+ years.
It was a bid to put them out of business after all. Not sure why you Delta guys would be worried you have a completely different product. If you're looking for fight you should going to DFW or better yet go to Denver as United's on the ropes. If you did that though you'd really have to compete with Southwest.

 

Are we not already really competing in ATL?