qball

RA is a shrewd operator and he knows this business to a greater extent than some other airline CEO's IMHO. Let us not forget his pedigree though.

Also...80 cents was worth more a few years ago.

boog123

Would you be able to provide us with dates that AA pulled down a route and the date the JB started the dates, and exactly which routes, frequencies were switched. Thanks.

gloopy

We're giving JB another 50% (yes, 50%) BOS growth next year too. We've flat out surrendered that market to them. If their magical CASM is the factor, then look out because they have that CASM everywhere.

But CASM is only as good as the RASM it rode in on, and in that respect we are in a very good position to take it to them and other LCC's with their massive growth narrowbody order books. Instead, we raise our CASM while paying to mitigate theirs by gifting them capacity because their CASM is lower.

Is that sustainable? If so, how? If not, where's the trend vector really going?

gloopy

That's partially true. But DL still gifted them a terminal they wouldn't have otherwise been able to get into, overbuilt its own terminal, pumped it full of regionals then retreated while JB pounced and absolutely dominated one of the best markets in the country. If it was merely AA replacement, there would be an empty terminal there somewhere that is currently full. DL could have, and should have, replaced epic fail regional capacity in BOS with mainline service and marketing equal to what JB has done and DL would own that market.

They've even spit on SWA's shoes, stepped up to them and said "this is our town and you ain't gonna do crap about it." But its cheaper to gift capacity to someone else. At least in the short term.

DALMD88FO

Finally, I know the big question out there on the line as you hear about mainline growth is how that will impact our pilot staffing and whether it will jumpstart pilot hiring. It’s been no secret that we are looking at a wave of pilot retirements over the next few years as pilots begin to approach age 65. Because of that, our pilot hiring group has remained active since we stopped our last round of hiring in 2010, and we are prepared to start the hiring process on short notice. While our hiring is ultimately based on the Network block hour plan, which in turn is affected by the economy, all indications are that the addition of 717s and the opportunity for pilots to take advantage of the Pilot Retirement Medical Account (RMA) early retirement option will accelerate movement across the seniority list and require us to begin hiring earlier than the planned pilot retirements alone would have. If Delta can continue to execute its business plan, including the 717s, and barring an economic downturn or other unanticipated event, we could begin the hiring process as early as the last quarter of this year.

forgot to bid

has there been an economic downturn since June?

gloopy

Actually I give them credit for that. We have to have a plan B for a lot of things, especially that.

kiteflyer

Well said!

FmrFreightDog

Well, see, there's the thing nobody wants to talk about. Of course there hasn't, but it's just too easy to point to the economy and completely ignore the staffing givebacks we gave away with a yes vote.

Since the vote, the economy hasn't changed, and network's grand plans haven't changed. The only thing that has changed is how much we are willing to let our system accumulators (reserves) flex up in the summer months. Since we, as a group, saw fit to provide relief in the only area the company ever feels pinched for staffing, we have nobody to blame but ourselves for the delay in hiring.

Then again, it's much easier to blame the economy for delayed hiring than it is to admit to trading hiring and movement for a small pay bump and two years of COLA.....

Boomer

There's no money in Boston.