FangsF15

I think the truth will lie in the middle. There will be meaningful improvements to rotation construction. There are just far too many 'penalties" in the TA for the company to just pay us more. However, I also think its a fools errand to think these pay penalties will competently eliminate the problems.

Having said that, I tend to think the end result will bias toward the improvement side of the spectrum, and away from the "just pay them more" side. But time will tell. Some of the many little improvements may prove more potent than others.

crazyjaydawg

Absolutely the truth will lie in the middle. Some months, some categories will be short staffed and the company will “eat it” as the cost of doing business. Other times, the optimizer will have enough slack to offer more leisurely trips (maybe one leg days!?!)

YouHateToSeeIt

I’m glad that other people are seeing this. A few folks in the Class Drop thread are acting like I’m unreasonable for pointing this out, lol.

Baradium

There is an actual logic to it, I responded in that thread so won't double post before you've had a chance to read it.

Scoop

A common mistake I see a lot of people making when considering Airlines is extrapolating current conditions into the future. I doubt the company has some Machiavellian plan to run the airline "hot" into perpetuity. The airline wants to maximize profit. This takes a lot of things - especially reliability, on time performance etc. There is a "sweet spot" with regard to staffing that we seem to be unable to stabilize at. Ideally the company will try to man the airline for this sweet spot which is not multiple greenslips a month in every category but perhaps a few GS over holidays and to handle IROPs. That is why we are currently hiring at record numbers. We will not stay as short staffed as we were coming out of Covid, new PWA or not. Conversely the airline also wants to maximize productivity out of the Pilots and if we never issued GS's we would obviously be "fat" on Pilots. Our best years for PS were 2014 -2016 at roughly a 16.5%, 21.5%, and a 17.8% payout. Manning at this time would probably be closer to what the company is shooting for then the scramble to expand post Covid which has not been ideal.

The industry is very dynamic and conditions change rapidly while changing capacity takes months if not years regarding Pilot availability. Not to mention the always present tension between marketing, Flight Ops and the bean counters. Throw in multiple fleets, training churn and you have pretty much chaos. Look at the 350 - when introduced it was raining GS w conflict - now under the same contract what is the Ops tempo? How about the 220 - same Steady GS distribution over the last 5 years with the same contract? Categories are always changing from short staffed to fat and back to short staffed.
So while the company will run the airline at red-line as we have all seen this is not optimal and to assume this is managements plan is foolish. If management thought this would maximize profits then perhaps this would be their goal but i do not believe that is the case.

On the other hand while it might not be their long term goal it could and is definitely a factor as we aggressively add back flights and try to capitalize on strong demand. But the market will change, it always does, and we will eventually catch up with manning and then have the issue of being overstaffed. Not to mention that manning is very different for every Base, seat, equipment so while the airline as a whole may be short-staffed certain categorizes can be overstaffed.

So while I'm sure our management team has a "plan" which they obviously have had forever, I see them more "responding" to constantly changing conditions then actually executing their plan.

Scoop - my 2 cents.

PhilMcCrackin

Totally unrelated topic, but is anyone else bothered by how small the Delta font is on our 737s/A320s/A330s? I think the A350 and 321Neos have the best livery. The DELTA on the side is in a much larger font. Hopefully they change that in the future.

flyingmau5

If you're bothered by font, you might have other issues in life. Just saying...

game

It’s called Billboard Titles. Every airline in the US has moved to billboarding their company name on their aircraft. Delta remains the sole carrier that hasn’t made this progressive change.

FlexManFlex

Or maybe they have no issues at all so they are trying to create an issue because they are bored. I do agree with them, we could use a new paint job with larger letters. Think “Thank You” airplane and replace those letters with “Delta”

24Whiskey

You need to discuss the font talk with the brand experts over at Airliners.net.