Speedtape
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2004
- Posts
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Originally Posted by Speedtape
If you believe that, you know nothing about your industry. The DC9 was a regional jet back in the regulated CAB days when airlines like Southern, North Central, and Delta were subsidized to fly near empty airplanes into places like Columbus, MS, Tupelo, Greenville, and Columbus, GA. They could only make money because of subsidy. The subsidy is still alive and kicking. It is just the mainline employees subsidising outsourced flying with fee for dept. airlines.
Mainline employees paying the subsidy???? WRONG--when is the last time you wrote a check? If anything, the outsourcing subsidizes the mainline pilot groups--most will acknowledge that. The "approved" flying by mainline contracts is accomplished at lower rates than your mainline contract would allow. In addition, by not having to address the needs of pilots flying the "small jets" gives mainline pilot more leverage in negotiating work rules and pay on "LARGE" airplanes. Apparently you have not been around for long?
When the Subsidy ended, so did the viability of the DC9 in those markets. It appears that the industry MAYBE realizing that fee for dept. does not work either. That is why, as contracts come up you are going to see lots of them not renewed. Once one airline takes the lead of larger aircraft with less frequency the rest will follow. Smaller towns like the above have no reason for the frequency they have.
Agreements may change--in about 12 years! Small towns don't dictate frequency! The Customer does,especially the business customer. The Customer will always have more options than your airline. Your airline cannot survive without meeting the needs(access, frequency, and competive pricing) of the customer. As SouthWest well knows, even the automobile is still competition at times.
No one flies DC9's except NWA and now Delta. Jetblue seems to be doing ok with a DC9 sized airplane, as is Airtran.
Jetblue does not fly DC9's. Airtran does not fly DC9's. A B717 is not a DC9. A B717 is much, much more efficient than a DC9. By the way, the B717 is not being manufactured anymore--this is a result of the lack of interest by most major airlines--hmmm?
Delta got rid of it's first fleet a long time ago. Of course, they made the mistake of selling them to Valu-Jet now Airtran.
Regional Jets are necessary and without the feed, Delta would be losing more money. I think most of us agree that there is a role for an rj, however the size of that role is the question. It has a role in off peak flying for rational extra frequency and opening new routes. Never had a problem with that.
You and I don't make the decisions. You and I will not be determining the role. Apparently we can agree, that Regional Jets will always play a role.
The late 90s and early 2000s saw an explosion of rjs in mgmts lust for outsourcing mainline jobs. They signed ridiculous fee for dept. contracts that not only bought all the seats, but in many cases guaranteed fuel and a 10% profit. Where do you think that money came from?
It was financed through the money from the feed that the RJ carrier infused into the Mainline. Do you think that your MGMT hands out charity?
Me and my fellow mainline employees in the form of paycuts and job losses. This worked well when airfares were high, not so now. This is why you are going to see a lot more rjs(35-50 seaters) parked.
Your paycuts and job losses were a result of the economic downturn in the economy, post 9/11. In addition, your Union negotiated an unsustainable working agreement. Futhermore, the government kept airlines alive that should have gone out of business, and by doing so, drained financial reserves of Companies like Delta. This suffocated the entire industry--maybe by design, so Companies, industry wide would have to go to Bankruptcy where they could decimate the previously negotiated UNSUSTAINABLE contracts. Something similar happened under the George H. Bush administration with Eastern/Continental run by Frank Lorenzo.
Now as long as the mainlines (for once, not holding my breath) do not allow further expansion of the already agreed to limits on the 76 seaters, I think you will see a rational migration of flying back to mainline with a little less frequency and larger lift.
Regional Jets will not be going away. Regional Jets are simply another class of jets--small jets. Small Jets are simply another layer of flying dictated by market, traffic volume, frequency, competition, and necessay feed. An International Airline needs access to all markets. That access cannot be accomplished without multiple airplanes and sizes. Can you make the argument that you don't need MD88's, MD90's, and B737's because you fly 757's,767's, and 747's?
A regional jet is another tool in the box and could not be replaced with DC9's unless they wanted to lose a lot more money.(re-emphasized)
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), but buddies can fly unaccompanied. We will also have access to travelnet.
