COMAIR in Atlanta....

[Palerider957]

Is is my imagination, or has Comair quadrupled the number of flights to Atlanta in the past few weeks. I could be wrong, but I seem to see a ton of their planes on the ramp lately.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm happy to see our Comair brothers in ATL, just curious......

 

[General Lee]

Palerider957,

Yeah, you sound really happy..... Didn't you guys at ASA recently stop flying your ATR's out of CVG? Do you fly any RJ's into CVG? They sure fly a lot into DFW, and now I think they go into SLC---where you have 1 flight to ONT. Could this be because you are in contract negotiations? Those guys are done with negotiating---and are now expanding. Did you notice that Chit-talk is now flying into DFW? (From PNS, CHM, OKC, ICT, and ELP) You guys at ASA are really taking a beating. But then again, so are we at mainline......

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Palerider957]

General:

Yeah Chatauqua flying our southern legs is a pretty big concern, and something that wish wasn't happening. Actually I think you hit it on the head when you mention our contract negotiations. To be honest I don't fear Comair as our pilot groups have a lot in common. I know you aren't a fan of Comair, but ASA guys have a different perspective.

We have tripled our flying out of Dallas, and opened up many other routes (yes, probably at mainlines expense). We have contiued to grow with more RJ's (granted a small overall decrease in fleet size this year while the E120's go the way of the dinosaurs), but I think our growth will coninue---and so do you from what you wrote in the "JB will rule the world post."

Not to start a fight, I was just curious about all my Comair bro's around.

 

[Heavy Set]

Playing one group off of another... It's genius - divide and conquer - squeeze each one during contract negotiations.... Why should Delta consolidate the regionals and lump everyone (including mainline) into one seniority list when it can play one group off of another and continue to reduce costs?

Yeah, we picked a great industry to be in......

 

[Palerider957]

Heavy Set:

Yeah, I think you're right. I don't ever see all the DCI carriers under one contract, it woudl be a monster with a lot of muscle that could command a fair wage and work rules.

I've been told our contract negotiations have been going pretty well, although they haven't started on compensation. Up until now they've been doing the stupid things like prisoner of war clauses, etc. We'll see what happens when it comes down to dollars and cents.

A few months ago I would have bet that we would have received a decent raise and some other perks, now I'm not so sure. If we come to par with Comair with some improvements in work rules (such as a seniority based reserve system and a commuter clause) I'd be happy with that.

 

[bvt1151]

Word is Comair will be joining ASA in Atlanta with 60 flights a day, not replacing. Comair will also be pulling out of Dallas, as ASA and Skywest will take over those routes. The ATR's couldn't be operated reliably in CVG (or so I'm told) but you will see an ASA CRJ at Concourse C in CVG at least once a day.
An ASA pilot is the closest thing to a Comair pilot, and even though ASA, and now ACA took over Comair's bread and butter routes, you won't hear any anomosity in CVG. Beat the drums as hard as you will, General, but Comair/ASA have too many common enemies to be upset with each other. Fortunate that we both realize the largest threat to our job security isn't each other, nor is it economics, its fellow pilots from our very own union. Thats why we call ASA "brothers" (and sisters too, to be politcally correct).

 

[Palerider957]

bvt1151

Very well said. When I first found out our ATR's were going into CVG I asked a few Comair guys how the felt about it and they seemed fine with it, which was a relief for me.

Whenever I see a Comair crew kind of lost wondering around ATL, I MAKE SURE to help them out and get them where they are going ( our operations people are pretty ghetto and don't care one bit about helping people new to ATL) I've always had very positive interation with Comair crews and I hope it stays that way.

 

[captainv]

CMR in ATL

Palerider957,

Straight from the June bid packet: "There are several flight changes with a significant increase in service from ATL to almost 60 flights per day by June 21."

Since I live in Atlanta, personally I'm thrilled about our expansion into ATL. I just went through the bid packet and found a bunch of flights that have 25-hour layovers in ATL on either a Friday or Saturday night. I just might get to see my wife on the weekends again!

I guess it makes sense that if ASA is tripling its precense in DFW, we would take on more ATL flying, at least until the last Brasilia is gone and ASA's fleet size expands again.

Also, for a long time mgt. was telling us our next crew base would be DFW. (Currently we only have CVG after MCO closed. Chit-talk is doing most of that now, although we still do a lot of Fla. flying). Recent rumors have possible bases in LGA, ATL, SLC, and i've even heard RDU. apparently RDU is in consideration because they are hurting for traffic and would give us a bunch of gates for free, esp. if Midway goes under again.

As for playing DCI against itself, I don't buy the reasoning yet. It's not like ASA and Comair have tons of extra capacity that is being wasted in favor of lower-cost contract carriers. Instead, Chit-talk, ACA, Skywest (and Eagle out in LA) are picking up what we aren't capabale of doing. Also, it's difficult to say how much cheaper the contract carriers are, since ASA and Comair's financial data is all rolled into Mother Delta. (If i'm wrong on that, someone please tell me where to look)

And to Gen. Lee and Heavy Set, we're just doing the flying that Delta management has told us to do, we don't decide when/where an RJ takes over a mainline route. As i've said many times, I support hiring Delta furloughees at Comair, and I'm still talking to every captain i fly with about it.

I haven't seen any animosity on line toward the contract carriers, although i'm sure the MCO guys aren't thrilled to have a two-leg commute to go to work.

Here's hoping I spend a lot more time in ATL than I do in CVG!

Captainv

 

[Palerider957]

Captain V

Thanks for info., and good luck in getting home more often. It's interesting, I'm originally from the CVG area so had hoped we would base a handful of RJ's there so I could move back to my home area.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[bailout]

I think what ticks off some ASA/ ATL guys is the fact that even though we are 'expanding' at DFW, the ATL flying is shrinking big time. (regardless of the fact that Comair is picking up the ATL flying) Our lines for the RJ-50 are now only 204, down from over 230 a few months ago, and are expected to be @ 180 by August. We are only getting 8 RJs to replace the 15 EMBs that were here. Yes we are growing in DFW, we have been getting new plates in our Jepp revisions to places like Reno, Sacramento, etc. While I realize this is great for the company it SUX for ATL guys. We look at it more like we arent expanding, we are just shifting the flying over to DFW, while ATL flying is shifting over to Comair. We certainly dont harbor any bad feelings against Comair what so ever. Now Skywest and Chit, thats another story.! And our flying being reduced due to contract talks is pure BS. I dont know how anyone can even believe that rumor. Its obvious Delta wants full integration in all of the main hubs with all the DCI carriers. I dont know how many more planes Comair is getting, but we are only getting 23 more jets by next years end. (fleet plans subject to change of course) . Keep in mind, we are also losing @30 EMBs. There simply isnt enough planes to cover all the routes. Until we get more planes or allowed to fly more % of mainline, we arent going to grow anytime soon.