miles otoole said:
As though ALPA could have stopped it if it wanted to. Management runs the show. Always have and always will.
Management buys airplanes - not pilots. A 25% difference in pay rates does not buy airplanes, a 25% difference in fuel burn does. Just do the math on Comair's pay cuts. A $9 to $12 an hour difference in the cost of a crew does very little on an airplane that costs $2,800 to $3,400 an hour to operate.
These contracts that permitted codeshare on Regional Jets were all:
1) Negotiated by the mainline pilots
2) Signed by the mainline MEC Chairman
3) Signed by ALPA National
4) Ratified by the mainline pilots
In no case has mainline scope ever been ratified by regional pilots. Regional pilots are not allowed to participate.
So if you want to know who to blame, call your own MEC Chairman and look around the crew lounge.
Now that that point is driven home - then next failure of the mainline pilots is that they see small jets as "Regional Jets." Then they argue whether an E170 is a "Regional Jet," but a E190 is not a Regional Jet, but the BAE 146 is a "Regional Jet." I am telling you - this is stupid. Any airplane is an airplane. It does not matter the size. The 767 ruined the dominion of the 747 across the Atlantic, did that make it a bad airplane who's pilots should be kept off the seniority list and scoped? Of course not. The CRJ200 and E135's are airplanes, just like DC-9's and 737's are.
All the mainline pilots have accomplished is to create an alter ego choice for their employers to pick. And lets be clear, the mainline pilots negotiated codeshare and will have to negotiate to bring it back under their control.
However, things are always more difficult to repair than they were to break in the first place. As much as you deride Jet Blue, they have their "Regional Pilots" as you like to call them, on the same list. There is no MESA, or Chautauqua taking over their MCO operation with E170's like Delta ( and Comair ) have experienced. At least Jet Blue knows which pilots it has to negotiate with to offer narrowbody domestic flying. At Delta the choices are, Mesa, Chautauqua, Comair, ASA, American Eagle, Sky West and I'm sure others are waiting.
Regards,
~~~^~~~
P.S. General: You will be pleased to learn that ASA and Comair both lost millions last quarter. ASA's losses are larger than Comair's, despite our lower costs. Our yields just don't keep up. It is amazing how much money is earned in operational profit, just to get lost somewhere in the General Offices. (Source - Aviation Week, the article was on a CP's door, but I did not get the date)
Delta had been talking about restructuring the fee for departure deals and might have done so. Those contracts are keep very very tight to the vest.
Delta needs either CRJ700's, or E170/190's, but can not afford them. Delta also needs 737-800's and 787's to be competitive in the future. It can not afford them either. In my humble opinion Delta needs to relax scope on fuel efficient turboprops, or better yet, just staple everyone and get rid of all the redundant management structures.