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DELTA fact or fiction.

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obadie

obadie

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 5, 2002
Posts
133
Delta to furlough 400 pilots?
Sent a new hire class home?
Parking MD 90s? How many?
Getting rid of 25 RJ's (Comair's)?

Anyone know the answers.
 
My neighbor here in Boca (a 7ER FO) just said that was not true. No mention of that on his company website, and the only news was that Delta was going to name one of their new 777LRs "the Spirit of Delta" like the 767-200 they retired. The Comair parking part may be correct, and I think I read a post from the General that said they were adding MD90s next year?
 
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obadie said:
Delta to furlough 400 pilots?
Sent a new hire class home?
Parking MD 90s? How many?
Getting rid of 25 RJ's (Comair's)?

Anyone know the answers.
Click to expand...
I might be able to answer three of those:

No, they haven't sent a new hire class home. A friend is in the Dec 3rd class and I'm in the Jan 7th class - he would of told me if there was people being sent home, and two, I just got an email last night from the new hire coordinator welcoming my class.

Parking 25 RJs - yes, that is one of their plans for the coming year. RJs are the most expensive airplanes to operate per seat mile in their system I believe. They've said this for several weeks.

MD-90s - what they are trying to do is get MORE MD-88/90s on top of all the other airplanes they have on order.
 
No going to layoff any time soon. Hiring 625-1000 in 08.
That is until the mergers are announced.
 
obadie said:
Delta to furlough 400 pilots?
Sent a new hire class home?
Parking MD 90s? How many?
Getting rid of 25 RJ's (Comair's)?

Anyone know the answers.
Click to expand...



1. absolutely not.... hiring (as right now) 630-650 next year.

2. no. no no no.

3. Actually looking at getting 15-20 more.... although that is on and off the bubble.

4. yes. good riddance. (there's wayyy too many RJ's in the delta system)
 
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Not true - but heard ASA's new base is going to be in Kotoka, Ghana. Delta's Africa operations are doing so well that they think a feed arrangement would allow the use of 777's on those routes instead of the 767.

The customers who have not flown before are excited at the prospects of jet service and the lack of US FAA supervision allows the carriage of livestock in the overhead bins.

Leonard is approved to administer Yellow Fever shots.
 
Of the RJs that are departing in '08, 15 are Chautauqua 135s. It was agreed to remove the short busses from service when the CHQ/DL contract was reaffirmed in bankruptcy.
 
ACL65PILOT said:
No going to layoff any time soon. Hiring 625-1000 in 08.
That is until the mergers are announced.
Click to expand...

Could there be mergers? Maybe. But, the main reason we used to have mergers was to reduce capacity so you could raise fares. Today, there are plenty of airlines waiting to fill in the capacity gap, like Jetblue or Virgin America. So, unless there is a very real need to merge, (not the reasons of Gordon Bafoon or other Hedge fund cronies) there may not be any. Even Mike Boyd questions the need for mergers. We'll see I guess.


Bye Bye--General Lee
 
Strictly rumors according to my buddys at Delta, however they hear that hiring will slow down drastically with the age 65 for the future.
 
thor2j said:
Strictly rumors according to my buddys at Delta, however they hear that hiring will slow down drastically with the age 65 for the future.
Click to expand...

Only 60 retirements scheduled in 2008, 66 in 2009. DAL hiring is not due to retirements.
 
thor2j said:
Strictly rumors according to my buddys at Delta, however they hear that hiring will slow down drastically with the age 65 for the future.
Click to expand...

Your buddies aren't too smart then. Only 60 retirements scheduled under the age 60 rule and hiring projections of 650 to as high as 1000. Hiring right now is almost all due to international growth. The only thing that will significantly slow hiring at Delta will be a merger or a very large domestic slowdown due to high oil prices and a recession. Both of those are likely so hiring may slow, but it won't be because of the age 65 rule. They will have to hire less, but only about 60-100 less per year for the next 5 years due to retirments. Not a very big immediate hit at Delta like it is at some other airlines.
 
Truckdriver said:
Your buddies aren't too smart then. Only 60 retirements scheduled under the age 60 rule and hiring projections of 650 to as high as 1000. Hiring right now is almost all due to international growth. The only thing that will significantly slow hiring at Delta will be a merger or a very large domestic slowdown due to high oil prices and a recession. Both of those are likely so hiring may slow, but it won't be because of the age 65 rule. They will have to hire less, but only about 60-100 less per year for the next 5 years due to retirments. Not a very big immediate hit at Delta like it is at some other airlines.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity, what effect will mergers have on hiring? Will it slow, but not stop hiring, or will it result in furloughs? I've seen a few comments, from people, anticipating massive furloughs in 2008-2009, due to mergers. I think something needs to be done, to raise fares, but if merging, thus mass furloughs, is the answer, that isn't the answer I'd be looking for.
 
PilotOnThe Rise:

The replies in this thread are correct. Mergers do not make sense to reduce capacitity because other airlines will fill the void. Airlines are operating with 80+ percent load factors. There is not excess capacity.

Merger could mean growth, if done correctly.

Age 65 effects you much more than mergers.
 
~~~^~~~ said:
PilotOnThe Rise:

Merger could mean growth, if done correctly.

Age 65 effects you much more than mergers.
Click to expand...

IF mergers happen now, the age 65 thing really comes into play. It just appears to me that a perfect storm is coming together for more furloughs due to the age 65 rule, slowing economy, and potential mergers. I think we will now see furloughs in a merger because there will be no retirements to offset capacity cuts. If we can continue the ER/777 growth for the next couple of years we may be ok even in the event of a merger. In any case the next year or two just got alot more interesting and risky for the junior folks.
 
phishn@daves said:
Are those retirements from the 60 rule, or 65 rule?
Click to expand...


It can't be from the 65 rule, it was just enacted. Those were from the age 60 rule. Again, we are hiring due to expansion, not retirements.


Bye Bye--General Lee
 
Truckdriver said:
IF mergers happen now, the age 65 thing really comes into play. It just appears to me that a perfect storm is coming together for more furloughs due to the age 65 rule, slowing economy, and potential mergers. I think we will now see furloughs in a merger because there will be no retirements to offset capacity cuts. If we can continue the ER/777 growth for the next couple of years we may be ok even in the event of a merger. In any case the next year or two just got alot more interesting and risky for the junior folks.
Click to expand...

What capacity cuts? If any major cuts capacity, then a LCC will fill the void, and become larger. That would be feeding your competitor. For a merger to make sense, it would have to be almost seemless, like the USAir and AWA merger(operationally, not seniority wise). No hubs were closed, and no additional pilots were furloughed. If you are talking about NWA and Delta, there would probably have to be fences created, like only NWA pilots flying their 744s for 5 years etc. At the same time, only NWA pilots can fly their DC9s, and if they are parked, those pilots go to Compass. Fences can work both ways. Also, there is no guarantee that there will be any mergers this year. High oil may force some smaller LCCs to look at each other, but most of the legacies can weather this storm if they have strong INTL routes that help back up the softer domestic side.


Bye Bye--General Lee
 
PilotOnTheRise said:
Out of curiosity, what effect will mergers have on hiring? Will it slow, but not stop hiring, or will it result in furloughs? I've seen a few comments, from people, anticipating massive furloughs in 2008-2009, due to mergers. I think something needs to be done, to raise fares, but if merging, thus mass furloughs, is the answer, that isn't the answer I'd be looking for.
Click to expand...

At Delta, age 65 will cause stagnation, but down the road. We are currently hiring for expansion reasons. We had 2300 pilots retire early for pension reasons prior to our BK. Most were early retirements, with some being only 50 years old. We are currently planning on getting 9 MD90s next year, 7 737-700s, and 4 777LRs. 4 more 777LRs are scheduled for 09, with rumors saying we will have 20 or more total within the next 3-5 years. 737-700s will supposedly number close to 25 in the next few years too, with 50-75 MD90s available on the market also. Why would we get used MD90s? They are nicer than the MD88s, we already have an MD90 Simulator, and our mechanics know how to fix them already. Many airlines in Asia and the Country of Saudi Arabia are getting rid of their MD90s in favor of new A320s. That's great, we'll take them. Rumor has it the ones we are currently looking at cost around $9 million each, including the engines. That is a lot cheaper than a new CR9 that costs $20 million or so. A lot of the newhires are going to NYC on the 767ER because we are adding a lot of new cities (to the large assortment of current routes to Europe) from JFK, including Amman, Cairo, London Heathrow, Paris Orly, Dakar, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, Malaga, Lyon, Tel Aviv, and Edinborough. We just started new 738 service from NYC to Panama City(Panama),Guatemala City, Liberia (Costa Rica), San Salvador, Port of Spain, San Jose (Costa Rica on a 757), along with Bogota on a 757 also. From Atlanta we start Stockholm (76ER), St Kitts (73N), and Cali and Medalin in Colombia. Lots of new flying and associated hiring that comes with it.

Bye Bye--General Lee


Bye Bye--General Lee
 
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