Bucking Bar

No. Nor should we want it to. The clear answer is to have the flying performed by Delta pilots.

Mesabah

I'm saying, it looks like the small jet flying is being shifted away from Delta to AMR/UAL. Delta got way to aggressive with the rate resets, and contract modifications. furthermore, the Endeavor bankruptcy caused a lot of butthurt in the industry. Delta's plan would have worked had there not been a pilot shortage.

It is no good to us if Delta is operating its RJ's at mainline, and the other carriers get the advantage of the regionals. All flying should be at the mainline for every carrier.

Bucking Bar

Good idea. But we need to forget the 76 seat limit. Delta needs a next gen narrow body jet. Even SWA is talking about the C Series or an E195 NEO.

Bucking Bar

Mesabah,

Labor law is too anti-labor for us to force anything on anyone.
The economic model that makes this work at Delta would be a model others would like to emulate.

Further, guys like T Square are not going to support anything that they perceive costs them anything.

Mesabah

That's eventually where I'm going with this, guys refusing to give a little for unity, will pay a lot more in the long run. If this develops into a full grown DCI crisis, management will do something stupid, they always do.

tsquare

I do not believe that any more than you do. "outsourcing" is a vile, but necessary component to being a global carrier. Do you truly believe that we can make money flying all the time to everywhere on the planet? Let's take LHR for instance. How could we compete with AAL/BA. without the VA alliance? Any idea how much the LHR slots cost? Put it another way. Do you think SWA will be able to effectively compete with us if they buy a couple of 787s and start a couple of flights/week to CDG? You are choosing to focus on the smaller end of the scale, but conceptually, it is the same.

I am not so sure that EtD was poorly conceived, although I admit that I have not studied it all that much. If there is really a pilot shortage, it is all about controlling the flow of those pilots. If you were a youngtser starting out, and you had a guaranteed path to a DAL or a vague path to UAL/AAL, which one would you take? Like I said, I do not know all the intracacies of the agreement, but I guarantee you that a 20 something does not have the salt that you and Mesabah has. They see the path to Delta.

Now that being said, you are correct that DCI is a shell game, but I believe that it is in the waning throes of that game. Again, if the pilot shortage is real, there will be too little "competition" to whipsaw anymore. You're right, something's gotta give, and at this point it is all about who has control when the music stops. UAL/AAL are going to be fighting for scraps when the music stops.

Do I want that flying in house? Yup. It all depends on the cost though as I also think the 717 is gonna take a lot of it, and I would wager that we might see something newer along that size in the coming years. Maybe not before I leave, but there will be something. It is all about upgauging now.....

tsquare

Why pay for something you will be getting for free anyway? But if that floats your boat, there's nothing stopping you from slandering me in the process. I just don't like being stupid with my money.

I prefer chess.

NERD

The others (UAL and AA) will find a way to reset. Bank on it. That being said, pease define unity? Us taking pay cuts, pay freezes, agreeing to allow sli to go to arbitration? 99.9999% of all dci would accept a staple, the .0001% won't and will sue. Besides, how do you get mgmt to agree to it? Talk is cheap.

tsquare

What does unity have to do with this? We are talking about business decisions that management made.

And you really think our management is doing stupid things right now? Really?

Mesabah

At the rate things are going, you are going to get that anyway. The question is on what terms, yours(ALPA's), or management in a panic?