Delta is getting ready to hire!!!

[ACL65PILOT]

agreed on the 300-400 number, but it will be Jan 2011 not ´10.

If they wait that long the hiring will be very robust.

As for if. It makes sense for DAL to wait. It is better to run short, than to add fat. If we are 100 short that is actually more like 260 short. Our EVP of flt Ops like to run the Operation with 80 more than really needed. Add the North and the South together ~160 plus the 100 and we are getting to a number of bodies required that is very hard to make up with Green Slips.

It has been looked at but no decision has been made. When a decision has been made, it will be made public to the masses.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

As of last week...(from one of the Reps)

We're fat through the winter, but unless the recover completely tanks, we'll be short as soon as May.

Don't really need much in the way of a/c orders to ramp up flying dramatically because we have low utilization right now and the company needs to pay down debt as a lot of cash is going towards interest.

Having said that, they recognize that it's a buyer's market right now and they are ready to jump on any opportunities that might arise. (Like LGA for example.)

Exactly. Our utilization rates are way down. Add to that the 50 jets we are planning on returning to service that are in the desert, we could add a ton of flying with out adding one jet to the mainline fleet. If we did that we would need 800-1000 bodies without too much work.

 

[Cobraair75drvr]

You guys can fight all you want (ala, lcc) or have a set time frame, pick your arbitrators, negotiate, mediate and arbitrate. In the end it will be relative sen. This has been the case in the last two and will be the case going forward. As far as legacies, I would rather be here than anywhere else. Not a kool aid drinker but think the lack of overlap of our routes and thinning out the redundant rj flying is a step in the right direction for this industry. I do think a cal/ual merge could be equally good, maybe better with the right leadership. I do think AA is in a bind if this happens. Organic growth would be very expensive/risky and a merger with the train wreck that is lcc might be worse.

Yah, no doubt ours is next. And of course I know it won't be pretty. In fact, I think it will be an all-out war on the SLI front. But until the merger is announced, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Don't take it so personally. Just follow the financial data. If you were an investor in DAL, would you be happy right now? One cannot ignore their massive debt burden. They will likely renegotiate most of it on terms but the debt still remains.

Anderson makes $13.2 million on the deal, everyone else is left holding the bag wondering whether this global behemoth is going to work.

Yeah, financially DAL is a sick cow. So are most airlines in the US but DAL, by far, has the highest financial hurdles in front of them. I'm not saying I think they will fail. Not by a longshot. I just think the transaction (merger), THUS FAR, is proving to be a poor decision. But time will tell. Hopefully, for your sake and that of all my DAL buddies, the deal willl work.

Don't shoot the messenger. The financial data is publicly available info.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Yeah, and we do not have 44 billion in debt. Go read the 10K or 10Q

 

[Whine Lover]

Meanwhile, in this weeks Aviation Week and Space Technology, Michael Lowry is not painting as rosy a picture as some airline executives are for the 2010 timeframe.

He is confident that oil will hit the $90.00 mark, and that the demand for seats will not even match the reduced capacity that is already in place.

YKMKR

 

[ACL65PILOT]

International is still really weak. Domestic is making money.

As ofr international, I have seen a 3000 bump in a round trip business class seat from ORD to FRA over the last two months. The demand must be there for that type of jump!

 

[ACL65PILOT]

I think that the first two and a half quarters will be moderately weak for international travel with a strong uptick later next year. That is where you will see some decent growth.

 

[ATLboeing]

Anybody have any retirement forecast numbers? I think a lot of senior folks at Delta took the buy-out deal, but I'm curious about how top heavy you are on the Northwest side.

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

Most of the guys that took the early out would have already been gone by now.

Someone posted the numbers the other day... there are 4 years in a row of 800+ in the late 20-teens.

 

[BE200drvr]

Recsession followed by putting airplanes back into service. Haha. Wake up General! You have no idea about the economy and how that pertains to Delta's operation. Try doing some more research on the economy and get back to all of us in 18 months.

QUOTE=General Lee;1910302]We are 1000 pilots fat for this season, not for the upcoming Spring/Summer. We have pulled back many planes this Fall and into Winter because of the Recession, but most if not all of them will be back in service in 2010, and we are getting 9 extra MD90s and 2 777s. Our Summer 2010 schedule is supposedly 7% larger than 2009's.


Bye Bye--General Lee[/QUOTE]