Comair Saga - Round II
The url below will take you to the latest round in the concession battle between the Comair pilots and Delta (Comair).
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/10/30/biz_comair30.html
It looks like the company has decided to make an end run around the MEC by taking its case directly to the pilots and flight attendants. I don't know what the FA's think, but I have some ideas from the pilots' perspective.
What's really interesting about this is the "offer" of 83 new aircraft.
The truth is that Delta cannot place 83 new jet aircraft (of any size) at any DCI carrier or any combination of DCI carriers, without violating its current contract with the Delta pilots or first getting that contract changed. The current Delta PWA would prevent that kind of growth at any one DCI airline or at ALL DCI airlines combined.
Perhaps management has not read the Delta PWA. or perhaps they do not think that Comair pilots understand what it says. DCI is already very close to the "limits" of the ratios in the Delta pilots' Scope clause. Eighty-three new airplanes would certainly exceed those limits by a wide margin.
They are making a "promise" that they cannot keep without first getting the Delta pilots to change their contract or simply deciding to violate it.
They know very well that Comair pilots are already suing ALPA over this very problem.
However, that does NOT mean that Comair pilots are willing to undercut the Delta PWA. Either the Delta pilots first have to agree or the courts have to decide that part of their contract is invalid. Until that happens, I see little chance that CMR pilots would give concessions to break another pilot groups' contract. That's just not going to happen.
Therefore, this is a bogus offer from the Company. One that they cannot keep under that current circumstance.
The only other way to increase the CMR fleet by 83 or any other large number of jets, would be to take them from other DCI carriers and transfer them to Comair. For that to happen, they could only come from four sources; ASA, ACA, CHQ or SKYW.
Comair pilots aren't going to take aircraft from ASA. It also does not seem practical that Delta would gut a company that it already owns. For those reasons, I rule that out.
The other three are sub-contractors, but Delta already has contracts with them that would first have to be canceled. There is no guarantee that if Delta did cancel those contracts, the associated aircraft would belong to Delta. Delta would have to buy them first. It is not likely that they would all be willing to sell. Maybe ACA would sell the dork-jets, but I doubt they would sell any CL-65's and SKYW probably would just use them for UAL. CHQ, only has the ERJ product. That's fine as long as they own them, but for Delta to buy that type (ERJ) would only complicate the fleet and increase CMR costs. To me, that rules CHQ out. It just doesn't make sense.
Since SKYW is already in bed with United, they might well be the most likely candidate for a change. That would "free up" about 47 CRJ's + 33 Do-jets, which just happens to = 80. Pretty close. It could be done, without affecting the Delta PWA. If there is a way to do this, that seems to be the most practical.
If SKYW keeps their airplanes, then Delta would have to replace them. Well, how many CRJ orders does Delta already have on the books (deferred, etc.)? It just might be enough. Bombardier is hurting right now so it might not be too difficult to negotiate a "better deal" for Delta.
That still leaves a big fly in the ointmemt.
Even if the Delta PWA did not exist,
Comair itself is not in a position to make good on any offer of new aircraft. Unless Delta itself wants to sign the Comair PWA, and unless Delta wants to buy 83 new aircraft exclusively for Comair and sings the contract with CMR pilots,
promises from Comair itself have little or no meaning. Comair pilots know this. I guess management thinks we fell off a turnip truck.
It's just my opinion, but I think it will take Delta's signature on a contract to get any concessions from CMR pilots. Would Delta be willing to sign? I don't know, but they could if they wanted to. We live in interesting times.
So where would these 83 new aircraft come from? Any ideas? How do you all think this will play out?
It's a nice story. Hope you enjoy reading it.