Will: I agree. The Delta guys who have flown with me have been top notch, good pilots with good attitudes.
General Lee said:
I can see Lawson trying to help his people out.... He sure as heck didn't just "offer" to help our guys right off the bat. He wanted something in return.
That Sir, is called negotiation. Bill Buergey came in and refused to negotiate - by definition - that is a "demand." Your MEC is spinning this to again whip up hate and resentment for pilots on the Delta property - I'm posting to anyone who will read it that this sort of politics is counter productive to our long term needs.
General Lee said:
In the mean time, DCI got a HUGE percentage increase while we were downsizing. Sure, we had some overcapacity problems at the time and that probably was a smart thing to do, but DCI grew a lot more that was previously allowed by our contract, signed by LEO. You got to expand, and we got to shrink.
Not really true, although your perspective is understandable. All along, ALPA & Delta management has worked to keep the percentage of DCI flying at the number which would allow the delivery of the aircraft on firm order. If you notice, we hit the scope limits just sa our last airplanes are rolling in, perhaps a little before, but the percentage has always been driven by the firm orders. Otherwise, DCI would have had to furlough for no reason at all, other than our own union's bargaining.
Delta has admitted in serveral articles that we are now scope constrained and have to address scope before DCI could excercise any options, or operate additional aircraft.
And we have not been growing - we have been re-equipping. In growth, people upgrade. The last three, or four, bids at my airline have included displacements because we are reducing pilot slots (believe me, I know and I picked up the books to start studying for my downgrade) I know it looks like growth to you because our ASM's keep increasing, but consider that an RJ cranks out 3 times the ASMs of an EMB120 and the CR7 produces nearly 5 times the ASMs per flight. 500% is a huge number!
General Lee said:
I say you guys won and a lot of people got free upgrades in the process. That is good for you, but some of you still want to expand at our expense, and we will still have 1060 pilots out as of Dec 1st.
I want your furloughees back too, maybe as much as you do - simply because then my union will not be so intently focused on destroying my airline.
As you agree - we are in this together. You need DCI feed and we need an international airline network to feed. Delta furloughed less and for a shorter period of time - due to the strength of the network with RJ feed. If DCI expands - you expand. There is only so much that can be done with an RJ, it is not a 737-800 and not cost competitive on anything but its niche.
Thanks for your reply! Have a great one.
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