NWA DC-9's

[Truckdriver]

When we can put household trash into the Flux Capacitor to achieve Mach .80

Exactly. Until oil gets back under $90/bbl, I doubt things will pick back up. If it stays where it is at or climbs higher, we'll be parking more aircraft.

 

[Poahi]

Wow. Like bell bottoms and leisure suits, fuel has become so expensive, the DC-9 is back in style.

 

[Occam's Razor]

I thought they were all retiring on schedule because all your older pilots have pensions. At least that's what your merger committee claims.

Knock it off.

Got it?

 

[Occam's Razor]

Are these Second Officers? How many are coming back?

Guess it does not change the new hire situation, if they are vacating Second Officers slots, does it?

The guys coming back are the "gappers" who either started here after a 20-year career in the military, or matriculated from another airline at a later age.

Most of the senior guys are into the Excess Plan since they've been widebody captains for a long time...so they're leaving. About half of the mid-range guys (narrowbody captain or widebody f/o) hitting 60 are sticking around. Their frozen DB is waaay below the guys getting the Excess.

Crew Planning is in a tough spot. Every one of the guys over 60 who are sticking around can pull the plug any time they choose, and many of them have gobs of sick leave accrued. The poobah-ette of Crew Planning told us she didn't have a "high level of confidence in their utilization".

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

FWIW, I heard the same today about the 9's, as well as the MD-90's are "still coming."

rumors rumors...but these are better than bad, they're good!

 

[tomgoodman]

Real dollars vs. promised dollars

Strange indeed!!! With an intact pension and golden years ahead, it amazes me that we have even one pilot who would rather be schlepping around airports than enjoying retirement. The difference in dollars between flying after sixty and retirement is negligible.

Some guys just have no life, I guess. Sad!!

How safe are those pensions? If it hadn't been for the 50% lump sum option, many of the DAL guys who retired in the last 5 years would still be on the seniority list. Do NWA retirees get any lump sum? Is their annuity safely in their own names and held by an outside financial institution? I'm not predicting another bankruptcy, but almost nobody predicted the last ones either, until a few weeks before they happened.

 

[JAM-BRO]

They are PROMISED dollars...


Don't say the B word...

 

[jetflier]

This sounds like good news. But, there has not been any info from NWA ALPA or the company about this.

I wouldn't count on it until it's in writing.

 

[comair00]

I'm in the pool until next April. Have you guys heard anything about our status or any guesses as to what might happen?

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

The overall consenus is that both sides, DL and NWA, will have to be hiring by the end of the year/early next year.

On top of that, when the lists are integrated, depending on how they honor the poolies, the DL staffing model will likely be used which requires more pilots.... meaning more jobs.

Don't take that as hard and fast- thats mostly repeating stuff I've heard and uneducated guessing.