Columbia

Nice, Clean, JFK. Pick one. Can't have all 3.

DAL 88 Driver

This is exactly what worries me about this latest development with our fleet plans. I think a bunch of junior MD-88 and DC-9 Captains are no longer going to be able to hold Captain. And then, as you point out, it will be that much longer before a bunch of First Officers will be able to upgrade to Captain. I've seen a lot of spinning of numbers here, but I'm still waiting for someone to show how this will not happen. Perhaps I've missed it? Anyone care to take a stab at this one?

johnso29

DAL 88,

I'm probably not looking at this right, but here's what I see.

34 DC9-50's parked/30 MD90's brought to the line. In just that I see 4 less airplanes.

Now this last AE had 100+ CA vacancies, and a handful were 73N. It may increase upgrade time. IDK. I can tell you that I've flown with some 320 CA's who are considering going back to WB FO because they don't like the domestic flying. We saw some NB CA's bail back to WB FO on this last AE for likely the same reason. I don't know if the MD90's will replace the exact the flying the DC9 was doing, but they have to replace something.

What's more disturbing is what we already know. A lot of the DC9 flying will continue to be replaced by RJ's flown by pilots who are not on the Delta Seniority list. This is not how we improve our product, but you and I already know that. I just hope we can continue to harp how important it is to recapture the flying. While we often disagree, I KNOW we agree on that.

scambo1

No doubt there has been a freeze in position (simon says stop) in the mid seniority since 911 (now think how the junior folks feel); partly due to age 65, partly due to what you are saying. We arent far from the point where most (actually I'd take a wag that it is 75% today) of the seniority list will be on 12 year pay.

Not intended to be a selling point of T squares longevity pay, but if you throw it at the wall and it sticks...what the hey.

alfaromeo

This is really quite funny. So you are saying it's better to have more pilots on your list on furlough? In order to make you happy, we should hire 1,000 pilots and have them on furlough so you can say we have more pilots? I am saying its great we are taking pilots from non-flying positions to flying positions and that is pro-management? This is just the silliest thing I have heard.

In January of 2010 we had 509,924 pilot credit hours which required 2,274 wide body Captains and 2,103 narrow body captains.

In January of 2011 we had 559,151 pilot credit hours which required 2,372 wide body Captains and 2,208 narrow body captains.

Which of those numbers is disturbing or pro management? I am talking about flying MORE hours and needing more pilots. I could give a damn how many airplanes it takes to do it, THAT is management's job. Our hours are growing and we need more pilots, and pal that is the ONLY furlough protection you will ever have that makes a difference. Management is buying 50 MD-90's and I think there are only 5 or 6 on the line right now. Each MD-90 will produce many more pilot jobs than one DC-9.

Why don't you just admit you are wrong? The trend is going in the right direction. We are adding more mainline pilot hours and requiring more pilots. I don't care about total pilot count because we are moving pilots from non flying status to flying status. Isn't that good? Didn't pilots get hired to fly Delta jets and not sit on Mil Leave (thanks for your service, in no way am I trying to denigrate being on Mil Leave) or Furlough Bypass.

As for the BOD rep election, who cares really. We have new reps coming in all the time. If you waited until the MEC was fixed, you would never have an election. Why don't you find something else to cry about, the topics seem endless for you. Time to go get some food, pick up is in a few hours.

mmaviator

Delta, three E.U. airlines sued by U.S. passengers over delays | The Salt Lake Tribune

Forgive if it's a repost of the article and bad news.

TheManager

Hey, why don't post the Block hours, not the credit hours. TONS of credit hour slop still in the sysytem post merger, particularly in the Pac Ops. Credit hours are meaningless as a growth benchmark as they work to eliminate that from the bottom line.

TheManager

I know the announcement of accelerated DC9 retirements raises a lot of questions, and I don’t have a whole lot of details for you right now. I assure you that as I get more information on the timeline and how we will actually execute the retirement schedule, I will share it with you directly. We’ll also need to see what effect the retirements will have on block hours and it’s effect on you out on the line. But, as Ed Bastian stated at the leadership meeting and later this week with analysts, we expect to retire the DC9 fleet over the next 12 to 24 months and use the previously announced MD90 acquisitions to replace the capacity in the system and still allow for planned growth.

Hmmmmmm.
The math is suspect. Also, examine the verbage of "over the next 12 to 24 months" Even $$$ says the next AE flushes the 9 category by 75% to 100%.

Reroute

The fact is that the number of mainline flying jobs have increased in the last year. Including mainline narrow body. The company hasn't taken delivery of a 76 seat RJ in over a year, but it has parked dozens of RJs in the last year.

Should those 76 seat jobs be mainline jobs, sure, but you don't have to invent your own facts to make that case.

scambo1

Straight no-spin talk from ...

Management.