government accounting office say's "no pilot "shortage."

[atpcliff]

I hope so...so far this year I have had 4 trips that I wanted to fly on DAL, and could not: 3 were because of a lack of seats, and one was because DAL didn't fly to that location. I have also had 2 overseas trips that I went on StarAlliance...because SkyTeam didn't fly to two of the airports that I need to fly to/from.

Last year I missed a status on DAL's frequent flyer program by 2000 miles. There were about 8 trips that I wanted to fly on DAL, and could not, because of a lack of seats...and several more because DAL didn't fly where I needed to go.

GRB will be getting 200 more seats/day on DAL starting next week. Yay!

 

[General Lee]

From a Businessweek article out today, entitled:
"With Pilot Shortage, Regional Airlines Search for Someone to Pay Rising Costs"
By Justin Bachman February 28, 2014

The last two paragraphs:

"Another regional airline, Great Lakes, is pulling 10 seats from its 19-seat Beechcraft turboprops so its pilots can qualify to fly under different federal rules. One of the more interesting tactics is a scheme by Delta to replace regional jets with larger planes, part of a deal it struck in its last pilot contract. Delta acquired 88 Boeing 717s fromSouthwest Airlines, even getting the seller to kick in $100 million for new paint and other refurbishments, which it now deploys on short-to-medium routes such as Huntsville, Ala., and Savannah, Ga.

"The confluence of events suggested to me that [Delta CEO] Richard Anderson was reading the tea leaves," Akins says. "He saw what was coming with the regionals."



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[livin'thesim]

Maybe lakes could remove an engine and a couple more seats and fly single pilot in a bunch of saratogas.

What a sh|++y company. Produced some d--m fine pilots tho.

 

[waveflyer]

Is lakes really pulling seats out of 1900's?

 

[General Lee]

Is lakes really pulling seats out of 1900's?

That's what to article stated. Apparently they wanted to carry only 9 pax and block off the other seats, but the FAA said take them out. Think about the leg room.....

But Lakes will be the most popular airline again for pilots with less than 1500 hours....


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[azcz10]

1) Mainline increase pay to it's regional partners for their feed to hubs
2) Regionals increase FO starting pay to $40-50K & increase min days off to 14
Problem solved.
It only takes an increase of about $3-5 per ticket if you want to pass the cost on to the pax. Heave forbid that it comes out of profits for mainline to retain their regional feed.

There are only 88 717's going to Delta. They came from AirTran so the overall fleet has not increased. I can just see these guys doing ATL-RDU turns all day starting at $68/hr for FO's! Delta's minimum labor cost per hour is $241 on the 717's or $2.06 per seat. If we compare for comparison's sake - say, Compass. If Compass raised starting FO pay to $50/per hour with a guarantee of 75 hours/month. That's $45K. Go up $1 per year and top out at year 4 or 5. Their 1st yr CA & FO labor cost would be $115 or $1.51 per seat for a 76 seater. So, Compass (or any other regional with 76 seats) can raise FO pay and still provide that feed at a 27% savings in wages alone compared to mainline.

We'll see how important the regional feed is to mainline. Regionals, which are basically staffing companies, exist because they provided a cheaper alternative to mainline flying the same feed routes. There has to be a savings for the regional model to exist. But if you can't attract the thousands of currently qualified ATP's out there then the ability to provide the service shrinks. If there are fewer little planes to bring people to the big planes then what? The law of supply and demand would have it that the price goes up for the little planes or find an alternative method. Hmmm.....

Now what?

 

[BobbyBiplane]

1) Mainline increase pay to it's regional partners for their feed to hubs
2) Regionals increase FO starting pay to $40-50K & increase min days off to 14
Problem solved.
It only takes an increase of about $3-5 per ticket if you want to pass the cost on to the pax. Heave forbid that it comes out of profits for mainline to retain their regional feed.

There are only 88 717's going to Delta. They came from AirTran so the overall fleet has not increased. I can just see these guys doing ATL-RDU turns all day starting at $68/hr for FO's! Delta's minimum labor cost per hour is $241 on the 717's or $2.06 per seat. If we compare for comparison's sake - say, Compass. If Compass raised starting FO pay to $50/per hour with a guarantee of 75 hours/month. That's $45K. Go up $1 per year and top out at year 4 or 5. Their 1st yr CA & FO labor cost would be $115 or $1.51 per seat for a 76 seater. So, Compass (or any other regional with 76 seats) can raise FO pay and still provide that feed at a 27% savings in wages alone compared to mainline.

We'll see how important the regional feed is to mainline. Regionals, which are basically staffing companies, exist because they provided a cheaper alternative to mainline flying the same feed routes. There has to be a savings for the regional model to exist. But if you can't attract the thousands of currently qualified ATP's out there then the ability to provide the service shrinks. If there are fewer little planes to bring people to the big planes then what? The law of supply and demand would have it that the price goes up for the little planes or find an alternative method. Hmmm.....

Now what?

Why would anyone bother to do this when pilots continue to come to work for these rates? There are four issues here.

1. Pilots continue to show up at these ridiculous rates, and

2. Regionals don't give a hoot as they can offload 50 seat flying, particularly those aircraft leased in the late 90s / early 2000s. These aircraft are coming off lease currently giving them a way out and breathing room, and

3. Mainline carriers have a contract for service. They have no incentive to change anything other than plan for alternative cheap flight support, if needed, and

4. Your neighbors and families continue to hunt down the absolutely cheapest seats they can find.

If you want to see the source of your problems, look in the mirror, at you families and at your neighbors. Until pilots STOP coming to work, there is no incentive to change anything.

Bob

 

[bri5150]

From a Businessweek article out today, entitled:
"With Pilot Shortage, Regional Airlines Search for Someone to Pay Rising Costs"
By Justin Bachman February 28, 2014

The last two paragraphs:

"Another regional airline, Great Lakes, is pulling 10 seats from its 19-seat Beechcraft turboprops so its pilots can qualify to fly under different federal rules. One of the more interesting tactics is a scheme by Delta to replace regional jets with larger planes, part of a deal it struck in its last pilot contract. Delta acquired 88 Boeing 717s fromSouthwest Airlines, even getting the seller to kick in $100 million for new paint and other refurbishments, which it now deploys on short-to-medium routes such as Huntsville, Ala., and Savannah, Ga.

"The confluence of events suggested to me that [Delta CEO] Richard Anderson was reading the tea leaves," Akins says. "He saw what was coming with the regionals."



Bye Bye---General Lee

I like that last paragraph. He didn't read any tea leaves. He created the situation in which he has supposedly predicted. Good or bad.

 

[Freebrd]

Is lakes really pulling seats out of 1900's?

Under Part 135 an operator can have 10 or less seats. Great Lakes is attempting use this (rather operate under 121) to continue paying pilots crap wages and keep flying those gov't subsidized small town flights. If the Feds look the other way and allow it, then here's where new pilots will build their hours to the 1500 mark.

As for leg room Jenny, it's still like 8 seats where they are bolted down now due to W&B from a cabin diagram I saw somewhere, at least at Gret Lakes. I believe they have one other seat (9total) closer to the cockpit, I mean flight deck, for the Feds to do observation flights.

Jenny, is it really true that Deltahhh is getting 717s? Wow, that's big huh. Putz!

 

[Freebrd]

I like that last paragraph. He didn't read any tea leaves. He created the situation in which he has supposedly predicted. Good or bad.

Bingo! Now you've burst Jenny's little balloon!