Airline Pilot Central Forums - Company motivation to agree on Contract

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramp9 (Post 4026132)

What makes you think the legacies are walking into the same environment that produced the last round of contracts?

Fuel costs have moved higher again, some airlines are already trimming growth, and there’s more focus on protecting margins than expanding at all costs. That’s happening now, not hypothetically.

At the same time, they’re carrying significantly higher fixed labor costs from the last round of deals, which were negotiated during one of the strongest demand environments the industry has ever seen.

Demand still looks solid, but the landscape is clearly shifting from expansion toward cost control.

Personally, I think expecting another quick cycle of outsized gains like we saw post-COVID is optimistic. The current environment looks materially different than the one that produced those contracts.

I'm a lurker and don't like to interject into other airlines' discussions, but if you have any Delta friends, talk to them. We have MASSIVE leverage right now. Our operation is a complete disaster, our VP of flight ops today said 40% of our flying is being covered close in, much (most probably) at triple pay (x1 to a pilot that doesn't have to do anything, x2 for the guy flying it). I won't go into super details in a UPS thread, but it's a mess. Our union is pursuing a limited scope, short-term contract for large ticket items in exchange for some scheduling relief. That sounds concessionary, but the system is indeed pretty broken and we can definitely achieve trip coverage that is pilot friendly in exchange for large gains.

Sounds like talks are progressing (at the very least, we haven't heard that they're going poorly and I'm sure we would've by now). We expect to hear soon if there will be a quick contract with a lot of gains or if we're in it for a long battle.

Again, not trying to derail your thread, but I'd pay attention to what we're doing for this next contract. It may have a big impact on yall's negotiations.