DAL 88 Driver

Good on ya, PG. Thanks for letting me know.

Unfortunately, the devil is often in the details. The real question is just how much scope, pay, and reserve system improvement we want and expect. I look forward to ALPA (or whoever ends up representing us) beginning to make the case for massive improvements to our bankruptcy contract and I have to ask, "why wasn't this done the moment we came out bankruptcy and the 'emergency' was over?" And why, almost half a decade after bankruptcy and record setting profits last year, do we STILL not have any clear objective and statement of resolve?

So... I'm assuming you do not agree with that. And like you said, "we may not agree often"... which means we disagree often... so when we disagree, I want to make sure you know. (Seriously, though, just pulling your chain PG. I'm glad we agree on the basic priorities. )

Columbia

American Airlines launches 10 new routes at LAX; new Shanghai service becomes seventh international route | anna.aero
American Airlines launches 10 new routes at LAX; new Shanghai service becomes seventh international route

The third busiest passenger airport in the US last year, Los Angeles International Airport, reported a 4.5% growth in passenger numbers to 59.1 million in 2010. In recent years, United has been the biggest carrier at the airport, but no single carrier has more than a 20% share of seat capacity. During the last week, American Airlines has taken the significant step of launching 10 new routes from the airport, most of them operated by its subsidiary American Eagle Airlines. As a result, it is now in a clear second place and at least in terms of weekly seat capacity is not far behind United Airlines.

Airline Frequency share Capacity share Routes (Dom/Int)
United Airlines 24.6% 16.8% 55 (47/8)
American Airlines 19.0% 16.3% 42 (35/7)
Southwest 14.4% 14.1% 21 (21/-)
Delta 11.6% 12.2% 29 (22/7)
Alaska Airlines 5.9% 5.4% 20 (10/10)
Source: OAG Max Online for w/c 4 April 2011
Although American and United lead the way, the airline operating the most international routes from LAX is Alaska Airlines, which serves nine destinations in Mexico as well as Vancouver in Canada.

Nine new domestic routes plus Shanghai

The highest-profile new route launch of the week for American was its new daily service to Shanghai in China, a destination already served from LAX by China Eastern Airlines. Until now, all Chinese destinations from LAX were served by Chinese carriers; Beijing (Air China), Guangzhou (China Southern), Shanghai (China Eastern), Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific) and Taipei (China Airlines and EVA Air).

American’s other non-stop international routes from LAX are London Heathrow, San Jose del Cabo (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico*), San Salvador (El Salvador), Tokyo Narita, and Toronto (Canada).

Disappointingly for the airport, none of the airline’s new domestic routes are to destinations not already served by at least one other carrier.

Of the nine domestic routes American is starting from LAX, three are served by just one other airline, three by two airlines, two by three airlines and on the Phoenix route American is joining Delta, Southwest, United and US Airways in competing for passengers. Continental and US Airways compete on just one of these new routes, Delta on three, Southwest on six and United on eight. All of these additional routes will help provide feed for the long-haul flights, in particular to London, Shanghai and Tokyo.

hockeypilot44

Do you live near Los Angeles or something? You're always so concerned about this Alaska codeshare.

newKnow

"Watching" is the operative word.

IMO, Alaska is a bigger threat to us than RAH.

I see them when I go through MSP now. I think I saw them in ATL last month.

Where in the world can they be going from MSP or ATL that DAL pilots can't go?

I will report that when I talked to a few union guys about it, they said they were studying the effects the codeshare has on DAL pilots. So, we sill see where that goes.

I think they need to get a few more calls.....ok.....lots of calls from us about Alaska.

TOGA LK

Buzz, this is real estate that was given up by our illustrious ATL MEC/pro-management team. In the world of land warfare it is exponentially harder to retake turf than to defend it; same principles apply here. While I would like to believe that DAL ALPA may finally get a case of nasty in their soul, management has been awarding long term 70 and 76 seat contracts as fast as they can and right up to the limit. Of course a VP will will make a base tour and tell some sheep that he "hates RJ's," the reality is that a EMB 170-195 nor a CRJ-900 is a RJ. The 737's flown by Alaska aren't RJ's either but the damage is actually much worse. Realistically, it doesn't matter what some VP in a crew lounge states, it's not an official declaration and for all practical purposes he's lying. He probably flies back to ATL and high-fives his buddies," Yeah, I told them I hate RJ's.".

Even if management were to agree on restoring scope, they would caveat it with, "Well we've negotiated ten-year contracts with these carriers and it's economically impossible to buy our way out of these contracts until then." The reality, half the pilots at this airline will more than likely be retired before we could see that reversal come to fruition; it'd be three contracts down the road.

I've run the logic every which way I can, the only two options are the status quo or mergers. The status quo will only lead to more pain (the train wreck that already began long ago).

The problem that needs to be addressed now is the mentality in ATL. Of all people, a pilot in a management position has chosen to reduce the 320 training program to "video professor-style" training. Ive flown with a multitude of great South pilots who really appreciated the 320 training program, referring to it as the old Delta way of doing busines; no more. Destroyed by one of our own, so he can save money in how we train and add the up front monetary savings to his resume. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong, if it does maybe they can pay for the damages out of his paycheck.

Similar in mentality, but an entirely different topic, scope/code shares. Seems like the crud sandwich always starts away from ATL. Management approaches DAL ALPA, requests more scope relief and code shares, ALPA negotiates a win for ATL in some other area (777 deliveries!), every base west of the Mississippi gets hosed.

Sorry, not optimistic in the least bit.

newKnow

<DISCLAIMER: This is not intended to evolve into a North v. South debate.>

I'm just trying to get my memory straight.

At NWA, does anyone remember Alaska starting a route to one of our hubs (SEA-MSP???) then NWA retaliating by putting a 747-200 on SEA-ANC?

Did that happen, or am I "misremembering" that?

1234

So you are saying that vacation should be "pay and credit" for the month. Right now anybody can fly up to ALV+15 and have their vacation in a month for a paycheck worth around 100 hrs. If we make it pay and credit, then all pilots will be limited to a max of ALV+15.

TOGA LK

Expect to go down a number on this AE, ATL is on my MD card with 12 flights a day (plus Alaska now).

TOGA LK

LAX, third largest airport by volume and the worlds largest airline (SOC) has 60 narrow body FO's based there. This is my point. Someone told me 55% of Deltas domestic flying is contract.

acl65pilot

New;
ALK and RJET share the a single threat; They both can be used though holding companies to our maneuver us and the limits of our section one. We must effectively stand up and state, that Holding Company shell games are under the umbrella of our PWA. If not, the down side could be very severe.