COMAIR in Atlanta....

[General Lee]

A quote from Surplus1,


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Contrary to your opinion you do not "own" Delta's flying. It belongs to the Company. You have to negotiate for the part that you get and we have to do likewise. We are not attempting to negotiate for your part and you need to stop attempting to negotiate for our part. You cannot scope us out of existence merely because you want to do so. Why? Because we aren't going to allow that without a battle royal. Our livelihoods are just as important to us as yours are to you. We expect you to defend yours and you must expect us to defend ours. When you all stop trying to artificially alter the balance in your favor, there can be a meeting of minds.
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Well, we own a certain percentage of flying---and you cannot fly more than that per our contract. You are allowed to fly 43% currently, no more. You can divy it up all you want, but the percentage sticks. As Chit-talk and Skywest take more and more----Comair and ASA will be more and more LIMITED. Scope really does help, and you guys have none. Orlando was just taken from you, and instead you got beautiful LGA. Nice. All of you will be pitted against the other guy---and we will still have our percentage, and you guys will have to fight for the remainder of the 43%.

Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[captainv]

>>Orlando was just taken from you, and instead you got beautiful LGA. Nice.

oh? did Comair open a base in LGA without giving us the two months' warning required by the contract?

yeah, we lost MCO to Chit-talk, but we took over the flying in LGA from ACA, i believe, but not the base. some say their performance numbers were slipping, or maybe we needed more capacity, and thus the bigger airplanes. i even heard rumors that ACA's prez called our and told him not to open a base there. one rumor said it was too dang expensive to even crashpad there, but the second said the crews rack up extra pay because of all the ground delays. (that's the great thing about rumors, you can have it both ways!)

that said, we still fly quite a bit out of MCO, and yet another rumor has it that mgt. has been cracking down on Chit-talk for calling in wildly bogus on-time departures.

one thing for certain, in june we'll have 60 daily flights out of ATL. doesn't mean we get a base there for sure, but i like my chances...

 

[General Lee]

Captainv,

Easy there bud. I was just commenting on how you guys too can lose certain routes to your own peers. Scope would have been nice for your hubs---like MCO---but you didn't have any. As far as you guys getting an ATL hub, I hope you do. ATL is a great town to live in. And, ASA also doesn't have any scope with relation to ATL (I mean there could have been a percentage of flying in that base etc...), so I guess you are welcome to it. But remember, there is still a percentage of flying all of the DCI carriers can have from the Delta flying as a whole, and we don't intend to change that---because we will cease to exist. We want to keep as much as possible. As far as who flies where, I don't care, except if the RJ's start European routes---which might be really uncomfortable.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[blott]

that said, we still fly quite a bit out of MCO, and yet another rumor has it that mgt. has been cracking down on Chit-talk for calling in wildly bogus on-time departures.

What would you consider Wildly bogus times vs. just bogus times? If the door is closed and I'm ready to go, I'm calling out. It's not my fault if I have to wait 5 min. while waiting for comair to get the engine started behind me...(What takes you guys so long to start those things anyway? you just flip the start switch, right?) The ramp guys call ops when we are pushing-so much for bogus calls...

Besides, we are usually early-not late.

I actually heard a comair gate agent say this to a comair management guy walking down the hall "Why is CHQ always early and comair always late?" I about fell on the floor laughing.

B

 

[46Driver]

Comair was a better fit in LGA due to the loads the 50 seat CRJ could carry vice our 32 seat Dornier. Also, we were spread thin in the maintenance dept with 3 bases for 33 aircraft. Closing LGA improved our completion and on time numbers and made sense for both ACA and Delta. I never heard that rumor about our president calling Comair's - if anything, I would think he would be asking Comair to take over LGA!

 

[captainv]

blott,

you mean i rumor i heard on the bus was false? i'm shocked!

thanks for setting me straight (at least i did note it was a rumor). i wouldn't be surprised if the MCO guys are still a llittle peeved over the whole thing. from the stories it sounds like they had a nice deal down there.

as for me personally, i grew up in central florida, and you can have it. i had my time in the sun, and then some.

it's not the start that causes the delay, unless that's one of the stations that doesn't like us to crank during the push. haven't been down there in a while, so i can't remember. most places, we're good to go well before they have us unhooked.

Captainv





>>What would you consider Wildly bogus times vs. just bogus times? If the door is closed and I'm ready to go, I'm calling out. It's not my fault if I have to wait 5 min. while waiting for comair to get the engine started behind me...(What takes you guys so long to start those things anyway? you just flip the start switch, right?) The ramp guys call ops when we are pushing-so much for bogus calls...

Besides, we are usually early-not late.

 

[blott]

 

[Bill Mostellar]

I don't really want to read anything into that but it sounds like you're implying that I might not "understand" seniority.

I do hope there is no implication that we might be.

Why do you keep asking me if I'm implying something? Is that a Jedi Mind trick?

I was stating (more delicately than necessary) that your assumption that a company wouldn't hire someone they thought might leave is incorrect.

It happens all the time.

 

[Bill Mostellar]

Contrary to your opinion you do not "own" Delta's flying. It belongs to the Company. You have to negotiate for the part that you get and we have to do likewise. We are not attempting to negotiate for your part and you need to stop attempting to negotiate for our part.

If and when you want an agreement with us as to how the flying will be allocated to each of us by the Parent Company, then you will have to resolve that jointly with us and not unilaterally.

You are correct - DALPA's contract specifies that certain percentage of the total Delta flying may be done by other than Mainline pilots.

DCI isn't quite up against that limit yet, but the day is approaching. ASA and Comair would be wise to secure a percentage of that flying for themselves. I doubt that DALPA is going to do it for them.

 

[rjcap]

On another note,

Anybody know who is going to fill the shoes of the retiring DALPA MEC this October ???

Maybe the new guy can show some leadership and navigate the pilot group out of this mess !