General Lee said:
"RJ" Fred Greed thought the RJs were the answer to everything. He was WRONG. He should have used the RJ seed money to pay down DL debt. How many RJs are over there at Southwest, Airtran, and Jetblue? Now, I will say there needs to be a few of them around to feed smaller cities in the hub and spoke style system, but not hundreds. At the same time, unfortunately we don't need the gas guzzling 762s that are mx hogs also.
Bye Bye--General Lee
As is the case more often than not, your "analysis" of this situation is flawed. The reductions at Comair do NOT represent a reduction in RJ flying at Delta Connection. What they DO represent is a
transfer of Comiar flying to other DCI carriers.
First, you deliberately ignore the fact that a fleet of 16 new EMB-170's were recently added to the
"Portfolio" by their assignment to Chautauqua. At the low utilization of only 9.0 hours per day, that represents 4,330 block hours per month.
Second, the beloved MESA airlines was recently added to the DCI
Portfolio. That represents the addition of 25 (I think that's the numer) additional 50-seat RJs to the equation. Again at 9.0 hrs per day utilization, that represents an increase of 6,750 block hours per month.
Together, 4,330 + 6,750 = 11, 070 block hours have been added to DCI (by the time all of these come on line).
5,000 hours has been removed from Comair. Smell the coffee ... where do you think that 5000 hours went? Answer = MESA and CHQ.
So you see General, you are wrong. RJ flying is actually being increased as a whole. It is just being done by somebody else in liew of Comair.
This is caused by several factors. One of them is ALPA policy, which resulted in inferior contracts at both MESA and CHQ. Anther is the cretion of the Portfolio Concept itself
(ironically by the current CEO of my company who is its architect). Another is the fact that DL didn't have the capital to buy the EMB-170's and CHQ did. Another is that MESA essentially paid Delta to join its little "club" and to make that agreement which allows Delta to retire some of its own aircraft (debt) and benefit from bottom-of-the-barrel pilot contracts (and other) labor costs at MESA.
Your anti-RJ rhetoric may make you feel better General, but it has virtually nothing to do with the current problems that either one of us face.
You will eventualyl come to realize what the futue holds. Your smallest aircraft will have the capacity of an MD-88 and everything else will be operated by subcontractors. For that eventuality you can thank ALPA's flawed policies and your own groups narrow vision. Management will continue to take full advantage of the opportunities you and ALPA have provided them. In the long run it will hurt you equally, if not more, than it hurts us.
While you gloat over what you incorrectly believe is the pending demise of the RJ airframe, you fail to see that your predatory Scope, championed by ALPA, has already done you more harm than good and will continue to harm both of us for the foreseeable future.
In one fell swoop of brilliance, your management has intentionally decreased the value of one of its assets, which means they can neither sell it or spin it off outside of bankruptcy. Their decision making with respect to the subsidiaries reminds me of The Charge of the Light Brigade or Custer's Last Stand.
The longer it takes the more I regret that my little company was forced to become part and parcel of your giant mess. Such is life in corporate America. All too often a large and poorly run company has absorbed and destroyed a small an effecient business. That is the story of the Delta acquisition of Comair.
Howeve, I wouldn't expect you to understand that reality. Swelled heads are a symptom of myopic vision that is seldom diagnosed by the victims until it is too late for corrective lenses to cure it.
The chickens of your folly are coming home to roost and all of "us" will pay the price.
