shiznit

Yep. No doubt.

forgot to bid

Wouldn't a mix of the NB fleet throughout the bases just aid in making the operation more efficient? It's not like you have to do anything to add a 320 ATL base or 737 DTW base? I mean I get myopic looking at ATL 88 which is massive but when you look at the staffing on some of the bases it's amazing how few pilots they have to have to make it, albeit in some cases barely, work now. MEM comes to mind.

acl65pilot

I am not ATL centric. I would prefer a few more basing options though out the system. DFW, BOS, MCO, SAN, and HNL come to mind!

acl65pilot

Agreed. When they do finally combine the 767 and ER in ATL they are looking at about 750 First Officers in the Category. That is massive. That does not include the Captains which will number near 600.

forgot to bid

That'd be fantastic.

Bluto

Why is that? When they consolidated LA the category shrank. Or is that just because they were downsizing international in general?

acl65pilot

The assumption is static staffing since there is no much domestic. Just a guess of course.

tsquare

How does that compare to the numbers of having separate categories? Personally, I think that allowing international categories to fly domestic rotations "as long as they were published" was an abysmal failure of the ASSociation.

sailingfun

International categories have been able to fly domestic rotations at Delta for at least the last 30 years. It really would not be workable in many bases to have it any other way. The company needs the ability to fly domestic legs with some international crews.
What has caused the current problem is not international crews being allowed to fly domestic legs. The problem is caused by the huge cut in international pay and how it is applied. Prior to the 1113 contract international pay was 15 dollars an hour for CA's and 10 for FO's. It applied to all operations in a international category including reserve guarantee, DH, domestic legs ect.. It is now 6 and 4 dollars an hour and only applies to actual international flying.
Prior to the 1113 contract the economic penalty was to high for the company to combine the categories and pay out all that international pay. The company could when needed fly domestic legs in the international categories but paid a penalty to do so. They only used that option when it was really required.
I believe one of the reasons they are rushing to get the 767 converted to all ER is so in the next contract when we open to restore international pay and how it is applied to the old standard they will claim its now way to expensive since the categories are combined. The answer to the company should be "I guess you will have to reopen the domestic categories" Contract surveys are coming soon. Get your wish lists ready. Going back to the old standard of international pay will certainly be high on my list.

forgot to bid

Interesting post Sailing.