johnso29

Because they will violate their DCI contract.

Fly4hire

How so? Getting 190's at RAH and flying them at other than the SA certificate does not violate our contract. Maybe someone else's, but not ours, and they now have the FNT and Midwest certificates and could fly them there. I see nothing in them getting 190's that affects us as long as they comply with the covenants of their SA contract.

johnso29

And that's the key. They may not be in compliance with their Shuttle Contract.

Also, everyone knows BB doesn't care about DCI flying or any regional flying for that matter. He wants his own airline, & will most likely continue to shift towards larger aircraft. DAL has more cash then RAH, & if they want out of their DCI contract with SA they could easily strong arm them. BB has a hard on for those E190's, & DAL could EASILY outbid RAH & then lease them back to RAH for a considerable profit. Of course they could also just bow out as long as RAH agrees to cancelling their RAH DCI contract.

BlueMoon

Except some of the very vocal individuals here at OH wanted (and still think they deserve) something other than a staple. How do I know? Because they have no trouble telling you when you fly with them. They have a bone to pick for some reason and moan about the big bad Delta pilots. I would appreciate if they kept the rest of us out of it, some people here would like to move on eventually and don't need people making it more difficult for the rest of us who don't share your opinion.

Lighteningspeed

No one seems to know what DAL intends to do with Comair, Mesaba and Compass. One escapable fact is DAL seems hell bent on thrashing Comair. I just don't understand DAL mentality regarding Comair.

tsquare

OK... but my simplistic thought still applies I think. If DAL management does not like the reliability of those jets, why would they want them? Why would my union allow any more jets to be flown at a regional carrier; flow thru in place or not? IF those aircraft are brought to our property flown by DELTA pilots, there should be no reason to concern ourselves with the "benefit" of the flow thru agreement. If, as you say, we would allow those aircraft to be flown elsewhere by non-Delta pilots simply because management could "get rid" of them when they are no longer desirable, we have yet again exhibited a weakness that management will exploit. Just like the alleged demise of the 50 seat jets, once Delta's investment in those aircraft is made, management will want a return on that investment, and they will be here (or more appropriately, at some other carrier) for years; flying Delta passengers. As far as I am concerned, the scope concessions are done. Any more, and I will seriously consider becoming a dues paying (unfortunately), non-member of this association. I have talked to one of my reps concerning other issues that bother me only to get the usual mantra, and I've had it. As I have said elsewhere, we have given management enough tools to make this thing work. The concession stand should be closed. Sorry for the rant.

Fly4hire

I have specifically asked several Reps, and there is nothing in FNT or Midwest that violate our Scope wrt to SA. There is no "no compete" clause, and RAH is a holding company that operates 4 different certificates. What they do on those other, or additional certificates does not affect the compliance with the SA DCI contract. IF RAH wants to keep the DCI contract all they have to do is - nothing.

As to strong arming and wanting out of the DCI, the simplest way to thwart BB and RAH expansion would be for DAL, LCC, and UA to hold them to their feeder contracts and tie their hands and not allow them to redeploy assets (and raise cash to buy 190's) to their advantage. Do like Mesa and sue RAH to honor their SA contract.

Don't get me wrong - I think it is a conflict of interest that RAH can operate in direct competition with DAL on one certificate, while at the same time providing them lift on another, however they were in essence already doing this with lift being provided for UA and LCC.

Lighteningspeed

You seem to know very little of the history behind the creation of Compass and the reason for E175s being at Compass. NWA management and NWA pilots created Compass before the merger with DAL back in early 2007. NWA pilots wanted Compass for their job protection and NWA management agreed to it because it would be cheaper for Compass to fly E175s as an interim gap measure for a 100 seat replacement. Basically, NWA pilots relaxed the scope clause for their job protection.

When NWA ordered E175s in 2007 for Compass, NWA did not know E175s would have reliability problems or they chose to ignore good info from maintenance managers who had prior experience with E175s. As ACL has indicated the E175s are a temporary gap measure until 100 seat replacements arrive. Currently, according to NWA/DAL management, there are no viable 100 seat replacements that are available at a "reasonable price." Those were their words during the NWA/DAL merger joint conference in 2008 for pilots.

As it turns out, much to DAL top management's dismay (maybe if they paid a little more attention to good advice it would not have been a surprise), E175s are having reliability issues. Maintenance managers are saying E175s are throw away jets that are cheaply put together with cheap parts just like CRJ900s, except CRJ900s have less electronics than E175s so they have less electronic issues and hence have better reliability records so far.

I do not see DAL management taking back E175s. Why would they? They are being operated very cheaply by Compass pilots at much lower Compass pay rates and without DAL workrules. E175s will most likely stay with Compass until DAL decides to get rid of them. It's a win win situation for DAL management, and a losing proposition from the very beginning for junior pilots at DAL and DAL owned regionals like Mesaba, Compass and Comair. Only pilots happy with the outcome are the very senior pilots at the respective wholly owned regionals who have no intention to move on and senior pilots at DAL who are not being affected at all by this controlled chaos.

BlueRidger328

I do not know where everyone is coming up with this reliability issue thing. I have had very few MX problems let alone cancellations. Blame the compass management and the NWA ground crews. there are 3 things that cause Compass to cancel flights 1. lack of crews due to understaffing. 2. inexperienced crew schedulerws trying to shift around crews and then forgeting to notify the crews and 3. rampers and gate agents damaging A/C with bag loaders and jetways. The last one is the most common, however, everytime I have called in sick ,even 12 hours prior the could not cover the flight and it was cancelled. Blame management hiring and training of schedulers and dispatechers for the inability to recover from IROPS, not the schedulers and dispatchers themselves. They only are here for a few months before being fired or quitting. The turnover in dispatchers is even greater. Our Second most senior dispatcher only has 8 months of experience! The plane may be a little susceptible to damage but it is not a hangar queen. I had more problems when I flew the CRJ than this airplane.

KC10 FATboy

Any guys like this wonder why there has been an extremely very few number of Comair guys hired since DAL exited bankruptcy. Sorry, but you guys bit the hand that feeds you.