I have read a lot of people making the claim that this is just a repeat of the Comair situation all over again. While physiologically I can understand why people are putting up the warning flag, they are two different animals. It boils down to the fleet. Comair had a mixed bag of 50, 70 and 90 seaters. The latter being some of the oldest high time airframes. No one wanted to take on more airframes that had a short shelf life and the wind down left them with a few of each type and the very top heavy longevity. Even if Delta would have given Comair additional 900s at the time they still would not have got a scale that would have brought crew costs down to a level in line with peer group.
So what makes 9E different is the end result is one of two paths. One the TA passes and the company in two half years is a pure 900 operator that makes it attractive to sell off, or the TA fails they scuttle the company and offer up the XJ 900s to the lowest bidder. The concessions are enough to make 9E attractive to keep in house that’s why they are beyond the cuts at Comair. They know what is sustainable and have a forecast of attrition for the next five years.
This is a horrible situation to be in right now and would never tell anyone to vote one way or another on a contract. In my opinion it is very simple two paths in front of you. I would not believe any conspiracy theories but the facts as they are laid out in front of you. No matter what you do the 200s are gone. You have the choice to take a beating and keep some jobs or shut the whole company down. Of course you must protect our profession but just as you are looking out for all pilots be aware that you have the responsibility of making the choice for the entire employee population.
The regional industry needs a new idea of how to apply pressure to get the wages up to a livable standard, yet at the same time it must be aware that doing so creates less incentive to outsource. The new UAL and DAL contracts both have paths to in sourcing flying. Managements have found that you can close down a company and restart a new one with all the same people and start them off at year one pay (Freedom, GoJets, Compass). Just look at what they did with ground handling over the past few years, same principle. They can create a new airline and give it top on the industry pay rates, because at the end of the day even the best first year pay is a lot less than the 12 year pay that same pilot was making before he got furloughed. The only way of this repeat cycle is to either a) get all the flying to mainline or b) have in the mainline contracts a minimum contract standard that the feeder carrier must provide along with ALPA seniority and longevity dictate what your pay rate is.
Best of luck to all 9E pilots, you got boxed into a corner. In this situation I do not believe the path you take will influence the industry. Delta has already done that for you. Do what is best for you and your family. Not one competing carrier has offered to help you guys out to hold the fictitious line, do not lose sight of that.
So what makes 9E different is the end result is one of two paths. One the TA passes and the company in two half years is a pure 900 operator that makes it attractive to sell off, or the TA fails they scuttle the company and offer up the XJ 900s to the lowest bidder. The concessions are enough to make 9E attractive to keep in house that’s why they are beyond the cuts at Comair. They know what is sustainable and have a forecast of attrition for the next five years.
This is a horrible situation to be in right now and would never tell anyone to vote one way or another on a contract. In my opinion it is very simple two paths in front of you. I would not believe any conspiracy theories but the facts as they are laid out in front of you. No matter what you do the 200s are gone. You have the choice to take a beating and keep some jobs or shut the whole company down. Of course you must protect our profession but just as you are looking out for all pilots be aware that you have the responsibility of making the choice for the entire employee population.
The regional industry needs a new idea of how to apply pressure to get the wages up to a livable standard, yet at the same time it must be aware that doing so creates less incentive to outsource. The new UAL and DAL contracts both have paths to in sourcing flying. Managements have found that you can close down a company and restart a new one with all the same people and start them off at year one pay (Freedom, GoJets, Compass). Just look at what they did with ground handling over the past few years, same principle. They can create a new airline and give it top on the industry pay rates, because at the end of the day even the best first year pay is a lot less than the 12 year pay that same pilot was making before he got furloughed. The only way of this repeat cycle is to either a) get all the flying to mainline or b) have in the mainline contracts a minimum contract standard that the feeder carrier must provide along with ALPA seniority and longevity dictate what your pay rate is.
Best of luck to all 9E pilots, you got boxed into a corner. In this situation I do not believe the path you take will influence the industry. Delta has already done that for you. Do what is best for you and your family. Not one competing carrier has offered to help you guys out to hold the fictitious line, do not lose sight of that.
