FlyingSlowly

For those that understand physics, aerodynamics, and the economic forces driving the price of oil, the answer is a resounding YES.

Today, the A319 compares to an E2-195 in the way a DC-9 compares to a 737NG.

The short busses all have a much shorter in-service life expectancy than the MAXs. They are a stop-gap measure. Cheap short-term cap-ex, less long-term future.

Such moves also buy time and let the company bargain harder with airframers...

Grumble

Shack. Buy a bunch of highly efficient E2’s for that long thin transcon/mid continent flying the 319 is doing, redeploy 319’s, Kirby gets more large RJs. Win win win.

Andy

LOL! Every time I go to work at LAX, I'm reminded of the damage that Kirby did to UAL and DAL when he was at AMR. Like it or not, Kirby's team was able to get the best gates at LAX for AMR in the reshuffle. There's more to Kirby's act than just RJs.

As for adding RJs, Kirby can add as many 76 seat RJs as he likes as long as he follows current scope rules. Just buy a bunch of SNBs.

As far as UAL now saying that they won't be buying any SNBs for mainline, great. There is now ZERO REASON to waste any pilot negotiating capital on SNB pay rates. I would suggest that all pilots let their reps know to direct our negotiating team to not waste any time negotiating SNB rates since UAL management says that they can't/won't buy SNBs. Let's see what happens when that's done...


For everyone out there who thinks that a 737-700 or A319 is 'good enough', let's remember that over the years, scope has creeped higher. There's now a gap between 76 seats and the 737-700 that management wants to fill with outsourced planes. It's our job to keep that size equipment on property by having them buy SNBs. To me, that's more important than pay rates.

UALinIAH

I’m going to have to disagree with that. From what my reps told me, that’s the exact reason our 767-300s pay is out of whack. ALPA didn’t see any reason to waste capital on an airframe that was going away. And here we are now retrofitting them with Polaris seats........

Andy

I can see that the negotiating tactic I mentioned is too subtle for some. Reread the last sentence I wrote in the paragraph you quoted. What do you think I meant?

da42pilot

-700s? That gap is widening up to -800s, if not -900s. Oil prices and pilot pay are driving this.

SNBs need to be negotiated IMO. All inside mainline. I don't want an RJ explosion anymore than the next guy, but there needs to be a balance in aircraft size--United is a hub and spoke carrier and it has to have spokes.

da42pilot

Doh.....I see now

Bluewaffle

Management never said they weren’t buying SNBs. They said Mainline pilots won’t be flying the 175s. Big Difference. E195s are very much in play and we should be negotiating rates for them as we speak

Andy

That right there is further scope creep. And we pilots need to hold our ground on both numbers of RJs and size of RJs.

Management has no problem converting -700s to -900s during good times because it only increases the gap. Their plan is to come back to us during bad times and get concessions to fill that gap. And that's their prerogative.

It's our job to force them to decrease the gap with mainline jets, not RJs.

Andy

That's EXACTLY what this article says: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...l-jets-450485/

Not only does UAL management state that mainline RJs don't work, Laderman stuck another stake into SNBs by stating that adding another fleet type adds complexity - another button they'll press when asking for loosening scope.

That's all BS. They can make SNBs work at mainline, but I'm of the mind that we return the 'favor' by not negotiating SNB rates in the new contract. That makes it even more painful as scope choke tightens if there's no payscale for new SNBs when they finally decide they want SNBs.