FDJ2 and ACL65:
My friends, I wish people would come at this issue objectively, based on the numbers rather than responding to Joe's emotional taunts & bomb tossing.
Joe is far enough up the list that 2 for 1 deals will benefit him. In his own part of the business, he is the senior Captain that is really not impacted by furloughs at his airline, as long as the "big airplane" flying remains unaffected, or grows. Mesa's reaffirmation of their injunction against Delta puts operators like SkyWest in the proverbial "Catbird Seat" for aircraft swap deals as Delta needs to modify their DCI contracts.
Again, I plead that intelligent people dispassionately look at the scope reforms that are needed regardless of the source. Dan Ford is much more conservative on scope issues that the Delta MEC has been, or is. The simple basic truth is that the mainline (not just Delta, but United, US Air and Northwest in that order) went to management with "scope sales" before bankruptcies and followed up this use of scope as "bargaining credit" through difficult bankruptcy negotiations that wiped out most of the gains made during the fight to rid the airlines of "B scale." Today, look at how scope violations are resolved. Has anyone parked a new RJ? NO! Instead ALPA bargains something for the violation. Scope Violations = Bargaining Events. That's just the fact of the matter.
Dan Ford fought ALPA to get scope for the regional carriers, a battle which he finally won too late to make a tremendous difference. Now he is correctly pointing out that Delta scope is so poorly worded as to be unenforceable when put under stress. Guess who also is making that point? Anyone attend the Counsil 44 meeting and hear the description of the Compass flow down?
The flow down is so ambiguous and the implementation of the former NWA LOA's are such a mess that they are acknowledged on both sides as being flawed. The basis for "approved aircraft types" are lines in the sand that can not effectively be measured. Like the MD88's, B757's, 767's and 777's the E170/175/190/195 are Certified across a wide range of weights. Literally you pay your money to the manufacturer, put some stickers around the jet, make one logbook entry and off you go. It is a scope limit that lacks any easy way to implement a compliance system. So, we rely on management telling us they are in compliance... .
Even if you strongly disagree with Dan Ford's grass roots, old fashioned, approach to ALPA's activities, score keepers must admit he has been right much more frequently than he has been wrong. His evaluation of scope, although unpopular, has been correct. He's probably right that "lines in the sand" need to be replaced with more objective measures like Type Certificates.
Hence the reason why I think it would be smart for the Delta MEC to capture Compass, then fight to push Republic out of Delta Connection BEFORE contract 2012 negotiations and the battle over 100 seat scope. In this business you have to be proactive to win. We have seen the result of reactive, concessionary, scope negotiations.
If nothing else, Dan Ford's presentation will hopefully get someone to thinking.
Frankly, I believe those in power don't care. They are willing to use Dan Ford as a political straw man, but at the end of the day if it does not effect a wide body, they just don't care.
