Displacement Bid 20-07D
05-12-2020, 07:15 PM
#291
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2010
Posts: 419
Delta ALPA is doing a much better job describing why an early out program is more beneficial than displacements/furloughs. More ammunition we can take to our union leaders about why an early out will be beneficial.
Early-Out Program to Mitigate Displacements - #1
On February 14, a record Profit Sharing payout made possible by record-setting corporate revenue was celebrated with fanfare by Delta management. Costs were not a problem for Delta on that day. At the same time, a virus, a thousandth of the width of a human hair, was silently spreading across America, ultimately becoming a pandemic and triggering an economic downturn. Presently, Delta's challenge is the instant evaporation of revenue, which is forecasted to be down 90% for this quarter and has spurred management to store over half of its jets. In early March, your MEC engaged with the Company and provided cost-saving solutions contained in LOA 20-01 via the April bid package re-do and SILs. Shortly after agreeing to LOA20-01, your Negotiating Committee approached Delta to discuss an additional cost-savings measure – a voluntary pilot early-out program. The Company declined even to meet and hear the proposal. This program would have provided limited pay and benefits to pilots if they took a voluntary buyout package and retired early. By offering pilot early-outs in categories that the Company intends to reduce the size of, downline displacements are curtailed, providing substantial savings – savings impactful enough that United and American offered similar programs to their pilots months ago.
Early-Outs: They Save Real Money
Before discussing potential voluntary pilot early-outs, displacements and furloughs need to be addressed. These options hinge upon the fleet plan Delta is formulating for summer 2021, and the network plan that will reflect the needs of the fleet plan. All pandemics have a lifecycle. This one, and the recession that has come in its wake, will end. Notwithstanding, both are currently making planning a difficult task for the Company. At its core, Delta has publicly indicated that it will be a smaller airline than it was earlier this year and that it will seek flexibility to scale up in the eventual recovery. With a fleet plan in hand, Crew Resources can derive the manning requirements needed to staff the trimmed down airline in the short and medium time frame. Through ALPA's analysis, we have concluded that there are three primary methods to most efficiently reduce the staffing required for the smaller airline.
Looking ahead, from May 1 to the end of 2024, 3,369 pilots will reach age 65. That represents nearly 23% of today's seniority list. The retirement numbers will most likely be higher as pilots decide to retire early or leave with a medical issue. When distilling fleet specific retirements just to the end of 2022, over half of the B777 and nearly half of the A350 captains will retire. This is not an insignificant number of pilots that can be incentivized to retire early that would otherwise be subject to displacement and the source of waterfall training events.
Displacements High Price Tag: The Financial and Personnel Costs The cost of initial qualification, not including a pilot's salary, is $40-50,000 per pilot. This number varies by the length of training, whether it is off-site, and who is instructing. Further adding to the costs are:
Displacements, and the disruption that comes with them, can also bring high personal costs to pilots and their dependents. Budgets are reworked as income is reduced, and families suffer when pilots find themselves forced to commute across the country to new domiciles causing them to spend significant time away from their homes. Even if a pilot and his or her family can move, it still represents an erosion of quality of life to uproot and relocate.
What About Training Capacity?
Logistically, some severe constraints would make mass displacements difficult for Delta. Currently, maximum simulator capacity allows for the training of 288 pilots a month. Once a pilot has been retrained, the question of OE and TOE becomes an issue.
Closing
ALPA has identified an undeniably elegant way management could selectively target top-of-the-category and seniority list reductions that vastly eliminate cascading displacements. Curtailing displacements lessens unneeded disruption to pilots and their families' lives and will help moderate any future furloughs and the high costs they entail.
For the early-outs to be fully effective, and to capture the most considerable savings, they should be implemented before displacements. The window for seizing this dynamic logistical and cost saving opportunity is fleeting. Swift action by management will ensure that the Company can avail itself of the savings and the flexibility that our direct competitors - United, JetBlue and American Airlines – have already secured.
The next piece in this series will examine the different early-out programs at JetBlue and American.
Early-Out Program to Mitigate Displacements - #1
On February 14, a record Profit Sharing payout made possible by record-setting corporate revenue was celebrated with fanfare by Delta management. Costs were not a problem for Delta on that day. At the same time, a virus, a thousandth of the width of a human hair, was silently spreading across America, ultimately becoming a pandemic and triggering an economic downturn. Presently, Delta's challenge is the instant evaporation of revenue, which is forecasted to be down 90% for this quarter and has spurred management to store over half of its jets. In early March, your MEC engaged with the Company and provided cost-saving solutions contained in LOA 20-01 via the April bid package re-do and SILs. Shortly after agreeing to LOA20-01, your Negotiating Committee approached Delta to discuss an additional cost-savings measure – a voluntary pilot early-out program. The Company declined even to meet and hear the proposal. This program would have provided limited pay and benefits to pilots if they took a voluntary buyout package and retired early. By offering pilot early-outs in categories that the Company intends to reduce the size of, downline displacements are curtailed, providing substantial savings – savings impactful enough that United and American offered similar programs to their pilots months ago.
Early-Outs: They Save Real Money
Before discussing potential voluntary pilot early-outs, displacements and furloughs need to be addressed. These options hinge upon the fleet plan Delta is formulating for summer 2021, and the network plan that will reflect the needs of the fleet plan. All pandemics have a lifecycle. This one, and the recession that has come in its wake, will end. Notwithstanding, both are currently making planning a difficult task for the Company. At its core, Delta has publicly indicated that it will be a smaller airline than it was earlier this year and that it will seek flexibility to scale up in the eventual recovery. With a fleet plan in hand, Crew Resources can derive the manning requirements needed to staff the trimmed down airline in the short and medium time frame. Through ALPA's analysis, we have concluded that there are three primary methods to most efficiently reduce the staffing required for the smaller airline.
- Voluntary Early-outs
- Displacements
- Furloughs, if necessary
Looking ahead, from May 1 to the end of 2024, 3,369 pilots will reach age 65. That represents nearly 23% of today's seniority list. The retirement numbers will most likely be higher as pilots decide to retire early or leave with a medical issue. When distilling fleet specific retirements just to the end of 2022, over half of the B777 and nearly half of the A350 captains will retire. This is not an insignificant number of pilots that can be incentivized to retire early that would otherwise be subject to displacement and the source of waterfall training events.
Displacements High Price Tag: The Financial and Personnel Costs The cost of initial qualification, not including a pilot's salary, is $40-50,000 per pilot. This number varies by the length of training, whether it is off-site, and who is instructing. Further adding to the costs are:
- There is no seat lock for displaced pilots; they can bid in the first available AE, thus negating some of the previous displacements.
- Mandatory displacements carry moving expenses to include lease cancellations, packing, motor vehicle transportation and insurance costs if pilots elect to relocate to a Delta base.
- Displacements from senior categories can cause a waterfall of training events.
- The A350 Captain displaces to the A330 A seat.
- An A330 Captain gets displaced to the B7ER A seat.
- A B7ER Captain gets displaced to the B73N A seat.
- A B73N Captain gets displaced to the A220 A seat.
- An A220 Captain gets displaced to the A330 B seat.
- An A330 F/O gets displaced to the B7ER B seat.
- A B7ER F/O gets displaced to the B73N B seat.
- A B73N F/O gets displaced to the A220 B seat.
Displacements, and the disruption that comes with them, can also bring high personal costs to pilots and their dependents. Budgets are reworked as income is reduced, and families suffer when pilots find themselves forced to commute across the country to new domiciles causing them to spend significant time away from their homes. Even if a pilot and his or her family can move, it still represents an erosion of quality of life to uproot and relocate.
What About Training Capacity?
Logistically, some severe constraints would make mass displacements difficult for Delta. Currently, maximum simulator capacity allows for the training of 288 pilots a month. Once a pilot has been retrained, the question of OE and TOE becomes an issue.
- First, Line Check Pilots (LCPs) are not immune to displacements, which will leave their ranks depleted. Replacing a displaced LCP takes time as it involves simulator training and line experience.
- Second, with reduced flying, the opportunities to get OE and TOE become scarce, which will lead to pilots sitting idle while getting paid. During the 9/11 displacements, it was not uncommon for pilots to sit unqualified for months waiting for training between displacements.
Closing
ALPA has identified an undeniably elegant way management could selectively target top-of-the-category and seniority list reductions that vastly eliminate cascading displacements. Curtailing displacements lessens unneeded disruption to pilots and their families' lives and will help moderate any future furloughs and the high costs they entail.
For the early-outs to be fully effective, and to capture the most considerable savings, they should be implemented before displacements. The window for seizing this dynamic logistical and cost saving opportunity is fleeting. Swift action by management will ensure that the Company can avail itself of the savings and the flexibility that our direct competitors - United, JetBlue and American Airlines – have already secured.
The next piece in this series will examine the different early-out programs at JetBlue and American.
Last edited by ChrisJT6; 05-12-2020 at 07:26 PM.
05-12-2020, 07:42 PM
#293
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2010
Posts: 419
No doubt DAL AA have more retirements in the near term but I refuse to except the WE CANT make it work standard excuse for failing to think outside the box and suffering again just because one’s MEC REP is in the top 30%.
05-12-2020, 07:49 PM
#294
Line Holder
Joined APC: Oct 2014
Position: 756
Posts: 79
True AA and DL have a bigger pool of guys retiring than we do. JetBlue is offering early outs and they have a total of 4,000 pilots, a much younger group than we have. JB in 2020 is retiring 40 pilots, 2021=38, 2022=37, 2023=65, 2024=75. The savings are there, the difference is our MEC does not want to help the bottom of the list.
05-12-2020, 07:53 PM
#295
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2010
Posts: 419
True AA and DL have a bigger pool of guys retiring than we do. JetBlue is offering early outs and they have a total of 4,000 pilots, a much younger group than we have. JB in 2020 is retiring 40 pilots, 2021=38, 2022=37, 2023=65, 2024=75. The savings are there, the difference is our MEC does not want to help the bottom of the list.
05-12-2020, 09:43 PM
#296
Get me outta here...
Joined APC: Oct 2008
Position: Boeing right seat
Posts: 1,541
Do you support a disabled brother, sister, or in-law? How about medical expenses for a close family member? Have you ever been sued? Do you have any understanding what legal costs can be?
If your financial situation is awesome, be thankful.
05-13-2020, 04:04 AM
#297
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2013
Posts: 204
Without knowing them, you are in NO position to judge another person's ability to take a pay cut.
Do you support a disabled brother, sister, or in-law? How about medical expenses for a close family member? Have you ever been sued? Do you have any understanding what legal costs can be?
If your financial situation is awesome, be thankful.
Do you support a disabled brother, sister, or in-law? How about medical expenses for a close family member? Have you ever been sued? Do you have any understanding what legal costs can be?
If your financial situation is awesome, be thankful.
Last edited by KPer; 05-13-2020 at 04:15 AM.
05-13-2020, 04:13 AM
#298
777 - ret
Joined APC: Apr 2020
Position: Waco CG-4 center seat
Posts: 863
Yeah ... Sadly many guys live the life to support the ego. There is a lot of serenity in living a life well below your means. Times like these drive it home.
05-13-2020, 05:38 AM
#299
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2014
Posts: 805
So let me see if I understand you: if you get furloughed, you are going to return but never operate efficiently again? Okay, how about those of us that get downgraded and lose the pay etc associated do the same while you are out because we are “angry “ as well thus prolonging your return? Or, realistically how about none of us take this personally (as hard is that is) and realize that it is just a numbers game that unfortunately we are losing at present. Last I read, the ALPA Code of Ethics frowned on such behavior. I get it. I’m disappointed right now as well but I’m not interested in costing this company even more money by operating in a manner that does so. Sometimes we just need to blow off some steam. I completely understand if that is what you are doing. I really hope you don’t get furloughed. I spent most of May 3 going through the list of displacement names then read the CCS staffing list from bottom up four thousand numbers (picked that number at random...). It was painful seeing all the names of people I shared the cockpit with who each had stories I remember. Nobody did anything to deserve this. It just sucks.
Everyone has their own definition of operating efficiently. We have an entire fleet of people who think operating efficiently is refusing to start the APU more than 10 min prior and shutting down the packs on the parking checklist as soon as ground power is hooked up like Pavlovs' dog. They are baking 185 people in the back while they scatter off the airplane with the first 5 passengers. You can call me inefficient but that to me is just being a bad pilot. I think as United blunders through this recovery sending oversold rj's everywhere and coming to us with pockets turned inside out ... the employees have a long memory and any shot at redemption is getting tossed aside for short term savings.
05-13-2020, 06:03 AM
#300
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: Sleeping in the black swan’s nest.
Posts: 5,725
I am not emotional about potential furlough but I do know people have a long memory. When I was hired, they told us in indoc that we were going to quickly outnumber the old guard here and we (us and management) had a chance to change the atmosphere. With these continual blunders and us potentially furloughing more than American and Delta it seems like the next 30 will be just like the past 30. You said this was a numbers game but we got here from some pretty poor management decisions. 9 Billion in stock buybacks, opening/closing/opening fleets and bases within weeks of each other, current leadership not taking "salary" but still getting stock options, and their current blunder where they say to read between the lines of a staffing report displacing 4500 people and we go right along with them doing orbital decay calculations to figure out what it means.
Everyone has their own definition of operating efficiently. We have an entire fleet of people who think operating efficiently is refusing to start the APU more than 10 min prior and shutting down the packs on the parking checklist as soon as ground power is hooked up like Pavlovs' dog. They are baking 185 people in the back while they scatter off the airplane with the first 5 passengers. You can call me inefficient but that to me is just being a bad pilot. I think as United blunders through this recovery sending oversold rj's everywhere and coming to us with pockets turned inside out ... the employees have a long memory and any shot at redemption is getting tossed aside for short term savings.
Everyone has their own definition of operating efficiently. We have an entire fleet of people who think operating efficiently is refusing to start the APU more than 10 min prior and shutting down the packs on the parking checklist as soon as ground power is hooked up like Pavlovs' dog. They are baking 185 people in the back while they scatter off the airplane with the first 5 passengers. You can call me inefficient but that to me is just being a bad pilot. I think as United blunders through this recovery sending oversold rj's everywhere and coming to us with pockets turned inside out ... the employees have a long memory and any shot at redemption is getting tossed aside for short term savings.
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