Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?
02-13-2013, 08:46 AM
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Joined APC: Mar 2011
Position: Cockpit speaker volume knob set to eleven.
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So now we are going back to that type flying, so...do we want that or not? Somebody has to do it. I'd rather it were being done by Mainline Pilots in mainline airframes.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Just very inefficient use of the bus. Maybe the plan is to insert 717 flying as they can.
Agreed. Just very inefficient use of the bus. Maybe the plan is to insert 717 flying as they can.
02-13-2013, 08:46 AM
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Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: 767er Captain
Posts: 12,109
The Guyanese government apparently designated Carribean Airlines as their Flag carrier and Suriname Airways announced non stop service to JFK as well out of GEO. EZ jet has already gone out of business with their 767-200 service. Also the Trinidadian government is subsidizing Carribean's fuel. We can't compete and our own government is allowing it to happen.
02-13-2013, 08:49 AM
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Posts: 12,109
But on the 88/90, which flies a near identical mission to SWAs 737 fleet, we are running about 4.9-4.8 crews vs SWAs 5.6 crews.
And that's set to go lower if as they said in the crew planning newsletter they reduce staffing further on that jet even with more 90s coming.
But if we went up to SWAs 5.6, we could soon add almost 370 pilots alone just for the 88.
And that's set to go lower if as they said in the crew planning newsletter they reduce staffing further on that jet even with more 90s coming.
But if we went up to SWAs 5.6, we could soon add almost 370 pilots alone just for the 88.
02-13-2013, 08:49 AM
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Under the new contract, we have allowed reserves to fly to ALV+15. When was the last time the Company expended negoiating capital for something and did not use it?
While reserves are not currently being utilized to ALV+15, yet. I do not think that this low utilization will last.
I hope you are right. I think the Company's intentions will become clear either this or next summer.
While reserves are not currently being utilized to ALV+15, yet. I do not think that this low utilization will last.
I hope you are right. I think the Company's intentions will become clear either this or next summer.
Again I will point out the company does not plan on changing any manning assumptions with the new contract.
One other thing that is never brought up here but is without question the single biggest driver on reducing pilot needs is operational integrity. Run a crappy airline and you need more pilots. Run a good airline and you need far fewer pilots. I suppose management now running a far better airline is DALPA's fault!
02-13-2013, 08:52 AM
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02-13-2013, 08:58 AM
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Posts: 710
ALV 15 had nothing to do with overall reserve usage. It was about the difficulty in using reserves to cover long trips. As a extreme example but one that does happen we have some long trips that in some months were worth more then the ALV. They could never be assigned to a reserve pilot under the contract. Even 6 and 7 day trips were often illegal for most reserves later in the month.
02-13-2013, 09:47 AM
Back on TDY
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: 747-400 Captain
Posts: 12,487
I found out a long time ago that if you step up and actually do something to improve pilots' lives, rather than just writing about it on a webboard, that you will subject yourself to this type of personal attack. I am so used to it by now that it just rolls off me like water on the windshield.
The revenge of the angry red book guy comes out again. Look at your heroes at USAPA getting run over now by events a new union will not help you in your quest. Just wait until two years from now when the fences come down, you will be able to hear carl scream all the way from Florida.
Carl
02-13-2013, 09:58 AM
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If you ever decide to get off your butt and actually do something, then you will find out that solutions are never as easy as they seem. It is ironic that the same people that go ballistic on this forum over the "FLY" button on the Delta safety video, then act as if there is a "GET MORE" button at the union office, and the only thing we need to do is push that button and money will flow like the Mississippi in April.
If it were that easy then someone at American, or United, or Continental, or Southwest, or US Airways would have pressed that button a long time ago. Remember American took 6 years and they never found that button, Airtran 7 years, United 3 years, Continental 4 years. Why oh why did they not push that button? Is it just that Carl, and TOGA, and Purple knew where the button was and didn't tell them, or is it because that button does not exist.
Nobody is talking about a "GET MORE" button. Only you are talking about that. What we ARE talking about is why you and other members of the MEC administration put out contract comparisons and road show documents that were heavily slanted and filled with half-truths for the express purpose of making management's case to us. You, the negotiators and the rest of the MEC bureaucracy was on management's side. You did everthing you could to minimize any gains in the TA. They only mystery remaining is why you and your other colleagues did it.
Carl
02-13-2013, 10:19 AM
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The fact is that our deal was the trigger that broke the entire industry out of the bankruptcy era. United followed us. American is directly hanging onto our coattails. US Airways is just along for the ride with American. Without our deal, we are stuck for years and years in stasis.
In the most difficult times I always relied on this quote from Winston Churchill:
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Teddy Roosevelt would have criticized you as well. And he wouldn't have let such malfeasance go uncriticized just because you chose to be in the arena.
Carl
02-13-2013, 10:22 AM
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No your facts fail. When did ALV plus 15 go into effect? When was the contract signed? There have been two small bids since the contract was signed that were both positive. Pre chapter 11 we staffed at 25 to 30 percent reserve coverage. The company intended the new reserve rules combined with PBS to reduce reserves to 15 percent of staffing. That was in 2005. Your now claiming that is the result of the current contract. That's giving a contract signed 8 months ago mythical powers and there're must have been some secret AE's the last few months. We are down in manning because we are down in block hours. Reserve coverage at the moment is approaching a post chapter 11 high. Many categories are well over 30 percent. That's a result of reduced block hours. Again the company has made zero manning adjustments as a result of the contract. The manning formula in the contract has not changed one pilot. Those are facts.
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