Ain't it always something?
 

Delta's announcement that they will trim their fleet considerably by the end of 2011 must be a concerning issue for our brothers/sisters at DAL.

The numbers of mainline aircraft planned to be parked is approaching that of UAL's right sizing in 2008, at 81 mainline airframes going down. They are also walking away from 93 RJ's, mainly Barbie Jets and props.

While it is revealing to see the demise of the unprofitable RJ's, the parking of 81 mainline jets (almost all Douglas 9's) must have some dangling at the bottom of the seniority list a wee bit concerned.

Makes you wonder though in relation to what happend at UAL why they are still hiring and if they furlough? How can they not parking 81 mainline jets?

Perhaps there is a plan at work we don't know about and to be honest, I haven't the interest to figure it out on that monster DAL thread...

I just hate see to see more folks go on the street. Even if they staff at 10 pilots per plane, thats still over 800 people who will be redundant by 2012.

Will their retirements or preplanning for Age 65 compensate perhaps?...one can only hope for their sake.

FWIW, most of those mainline aircraft are already gone so there are no big risks of large furloughs unless the other shoe drops. Take a closer look at DAL's SEC filing and you will see the "reduction" in mainline aircraft in 2011 is a comparison with 2007. The steady retirement of the DC-9 has been ongoing for 4 years now. They are actually looking at an increase in flying this quarter compared to last year just by doing a better job of aircraft utilization.

But yes, the BIG news is the reduction of RJ flying. Oh so sad....

Yes, you're right. I havent really been paying close attention to the airframes over at DAL (been to busy looking for a job!) and the article made it look like the reduction was more sudden.

So, the process of parking 9's has largely been completed then and there insn't as great a threat of furloughs. Well that is very welcome news.

I wonder if they will continue hiring though or put a freeze on it, given that they are obviously being affected by the oil prices.

It also said they had increased long haul gear by 10 airframes during that time, so that must have offset the parking process.

The article was pretty dark and didn't mention the efficiency flying increases. On second read it seems to be written intentionally with a dim view.

Yes, darn more RJ's going the way of the dodo. Very sad indeed...

Hey, are we going to "efficiency flying increases" at Mother UAL?

Unlike UA, DAL has plans to replace them with MD-90s and 100-200 new NBs that I believe Richard Anderson said will be flown by DL pilots. NOT outsourced. The C-Series is one of the aircraft under consideration.

Since Jeff is so keen on copying everything DAL does, maybe he should consider ordering C-Series for mainline to fly and park unprofitable RJs

Delta Plans to Order 200 Narrow-Body Jets, Options for 200 More - Bloomberg

Article made no mention of that either.

Indeed, hopefully UAL will follow suit.

Things are looking for the DAL lads I'd say.

Well, let's hope that is true.

DL announced in December they were expanding first class system wide by 13%. I don't see that happening here at UniCAL, but hopefully it will make the powers that be strongly consider keeping and expanding E+ seating across the entire fleet. If they want to retain business travelers, it would make no sense to remove these seats and give those people reason to switch to Delta now that they are increasing first class seating. Plus, wouldn't it add natural capacity discipline by removing a row of seats to add that legroom in the first few economy rows?

If I remember right, the dal ceo took no salary his first year. Perhaps that is part of the leadership that smizek should copy.

Just a reminder....and this never gets old.

October 1st, 2010 the financial closing for the New UAL. That same week, Jeffery & company announce their handsome salaries/bonus figures regarding the New UAL as 'they' move forward.
United-Continental CEO Smisek to get $975K salary | Chicago Breaking Business

The "me-me-me" leadership alive & well.....Pathetic.

Are you suggesting we should all take NO salary for a year???

Either you are trying to goad SoCal into a thread drift or you really don't understand the situation at all.

We are all tired of watching management using this company as their personal checking account, be it either a 33% pop for Smisek or a 3000% pop for Tilton a couple years ago. While we are all being told how much they are doing for this company and how lucky we should feel, they are signing retention bonuses like we sign aircraft releases.

At the same time, when things break in my house, they don't get fixed unless absolutely necessary. I'm having to explain to my oldest children how I cannot completely fund their college education. A couple of my children came to me last December and said don't worry about Christmas since they understood things were tight.

So when I see a CEO receive applause for refusing his salary, I see a CEO who will eventually receive an extravagant compensation package making up for the difference. I'm all for Smisek since i'm going to make up my difference for the past eight years in this next contract. Of course it makes sense?