Weekly Update
March 8, 2013
This "Weekly Update" is the transcript from the phone message usually recorded on Fridays by a senior leader in Flight Operations. You may also call 1-800-DAL-FLYY each week to hear the latest information. It is also available for download as a podcast; see http://www.dalpilot.com/podcast for more details. This transcript is additionally available in the Flight Ops Communications Section of the Flight Ops web page.
Dear Delta Pilot,
Sign In to Portal
Weekly Update
Hi everybody, this is Steve Dickson with the weekly Flight Operations update for Friday, March 8th. This was a busy week in Flight Operations and I have several items I want to touch on including the Advance Entitlement that was posted today, the official start of the MD-88/90 cockpit refresh project and Delta’s announcement this week that we’re expanding LAX mainline service. Finally, I’ll close with a major milestone for Delta pilots – the retirement of Captain Cal Flanigan, the number one pilot on Delta’s seniority list for the past eight years.
Well, first, let’s talk about the Advance Entitlement that was posted today and closes at 1300 Eastern on Monday, March 18. The big news on this 365-day bid is that it officially opens the 717 category in ATL with 145 Captain and 145 First Officer positions. We will most likely open the DTW-717 categories later this year once we have a little better idea of when Network plans to add the 717 to DTW. We’re also opening the DTW-73N categories on this bid with 55 Captains and 55 First Officers. The bid will also add pilots to several widebody categories that we anticipate will be affected by retirements over the next several years. Between March and December of this year, 58 pilots will reach age 65 retirement and another 103 will reach 65 in 2014. Additionally, as our Crew Resources & Scheduling team has discussed at the most recent base visits and in newsletters, the ATL 767 category will close on this bid with additional positions being added to the ATL 7ER category. System-wide, we currently have a surplus of pilots. This bid will reallocate staffing by moving pilots to the new categories and to categories that may be impacted by attrition over the next few years. Overall, we have a gain of approximately 80 Captains on this and a net vacancy of 51. The AE bid is posted on the Crew Resources & Scheduling page of Delta Net and was emailed to all pilots who have subscribed to Flight Ops emails. We also published the latest edition of the Crew Resources newsletter today, which should go a long way towards answering many of the questions you may have about bidding.
Next, I want to touch on big news for the MD88/90 fleet. This week, we finalized the paperwork to begin the cockpit refresh of that fleet, allowing Delta to continue using these fuel-efficient aircraft well into the next decade. The upgrade will include dual FMS, dual GPS and flat panel displays as well as greatly enhanced nav database capacity. Modified aircraft will be able to fly curved RNAV RNP approaches and will have full datalink capability that includes the flight plan, performance and Takeoff Data Uplinks. Additionally, virtually all NextGen capabilities will be supported with this upgraded technology. The installation is scheduled to begin in 2014 with all aircraft modified by the end of 2015.
Well, there was more good news this week from a Network perspective. On Wednesday, Delta announced expanded service in Los Angeles with daily year-round and seasonal service to 14 destinations, including eight new markets. The new markets include year-round service to Nashville, Seattle, San Jose, Spokane and San Jose, Costa Rica, as well as summer seasonal service to Boston, Anchorage and Bozeman. This additional service adds 12 percent more daily seats to LAX as we continue building Delta’s brand and presence in our West Coast gateways. By summer, Delta will operate 118 peak-day departures to 40 nonstop destinations -- including Sydney and Tokyo -- from Los Angeles.
Finally today, I want to pay tribute to ATL 777 Captain Cal Flanigan on behalf of all Delta pilots. This truly was one of the highlights of my professional career, I can tell you that. Cal flew his final flight today – Flight 16 from LAX to ATL – after a 45-year career at Delta, 36 years as a pilot and 25 as a captain, if you can believe that. Cal actually started his career at Delta in Tech Ops. This morning, he departed LAX with a water cannon salute, and was congratulated along his route of flight by Air Traffic Controllers as he made his way east. In Atlanta, he received another water cannon salute as he taxied to the gate for the last time. I was fortunate enough to be in the gatehouse to greet Cal and his family as he walked off the jet – and I was in good company as a crowd of well-wishers had gathered for the occasion. This included current and former chief pilots, both pilot and non-pilot employees and many of Cal’s close friends.
Cal’s retirement is significant for a couple of several reasons. As most of you know, he has been the number one Delta pilot on the seniority list for the past eight years. As he retires at age 65, he passes along the baton to the new number one pilot on the list: DTW 747 Captain P.R. Haley. But Cal’s retirement has also caused many of us who have worked with him or flown with him over the years to stop and take note. Here is a pilot who fully embraced the Delta family and culture throughout his career – during the good times and bad. He flew DC-9s for Delta when the company was operating that airplane with mostly intra-state hops from Atlanta to Macon, Atlanta to Columbus and Atlanta to Savannah. And he’s been here to witness firsthand the company grow to an international carrier – merging with Western, acquiring Pan Am assets and finally joining forces with Northwest. He’s seen Delta go through the heartache of bankruptcy but also emerge now as a top-tier airline. And through it all, he has never lost hope that the spirit of Delta would prevail. As he said so eloquently in his farewell letter to Richard Anderson, “Widgets will always be a part of my DNA.”
So, I end today’s message with a heartfelt congratulations to Cal and his family, and best wishes for a long and happy retirement from all of your colleagues in Flight Operations, including nearly 11,000 line pilots. And there’s something else special that will occur soon – the dedication of the In Command conference room as the Capt. Cal Flannigan Room. You’ll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks.
Well, that’s it for this week. As always, thanks for everything you do every day on the line on every flight for our customers and for each other. Please fly safe, thanks for calling in and I’ll talk to you again next week.
March 8, 2013
This "Weekly Update" is the transcript from the phone message usually recorded on Fridays by a senior leader in Flight Operations. You may also call 1-800-DAL-FLYY each week to hear the latest information. It is also available for download as a podcast; see http://www.dalpilot.com/podcast for more details. This transcript is additionally available in the Flight Ops Communications Section of the Flight Ops web page.
Dear Delta Pilot,
Sign In to Portal
Weekly Update
Hi everybody, this is Steve Dickson with the weekly Flight Operations update for Friday, March 8th. This was a busy week in Flight Operations and I have several items I want to touch on including the Advance Entitlement that was posted today, the official start of the MD-88/90 cockpit refresh project and Delta’s announcement this week that we’re expanding LAX mainline service. Finally, I’ll close with a major milestone for Delta pilots – the retirement of Captain Cal Flanigan, the number one pilot on Delta’s seniority list for the past eight years.
Well, first, let’s talk about the Advance Entitlement that was posted today and closes at 1300 Eastern on Monday, March 18. The big news on this 365-day bid is that it officially opens the 717 category in ATL with 145 Captain and 145 First Officer positions. We will most likely open the DTW-717 categories later this year once we have a little better idea of when Network plans to add the 717 to DTW. We’re also opening the DTW-73N categories on this bid with 55 Captains and 55 First Officers. The bid will also add pilots to several widebody categories that we anticipate will be affected by retirements over the next several years. Between March and December of this year, 58 pilots will reach age 65 retirement and another 103 will reach 65 in 2014. Additionally, as our Crew Resources & Scheduling team has discussed at the most recent base visits and in newsletters, the ATL 767 category will close on this bid with additional positions being added to the ATL 7ER category. System-wide, we currently have a surplus of pilots. This bid will reallocate staffing by moving pilots to the new categories and to categories that may be impacted by attrition over the next few years. Overall, we have a gain of approximately 80 Captains on this and a net vacancy of 51. The AE bid is posted on the Crew Resources & Scheduling page of Delta Net and was emailed to all pilots who have subscribed to Flight Ops emails. We also published the latest edition of the Crew Resources newsletter today, which should go a long way towards answering many of the questions you may have about bidding.
Next, I want to touch on big news for the MD88/90 fleet. This week, we finalized the paperwork to begin the cockpit refresh of that fleet, allowing Delta to continue using these fuel-efficient aircraft well into the next decade. The upgrade will include dual FMS, dual GPS and flat panel displays as well as greatly enhanced nav database capacity. Modified aircraft will be able to fly curved RNAV RNP approaches and will have full datalink capability that includes the flight plan, performance and Takeoff Data Uplinks. Additionally, virtually all NextGen capabilities will be supported with this upgraded technology. The installation is scheduled to begin in 2014 with all aircraft modified by the end of 2015.
Well, there was more good news this week from a Network perspective. On Wednesday, Delta announced expanded service in Los Angeles with daily year-round and seasonal service to 14 destinations, including eight new markets. The new markets include year-round service to Nashville, Seattle, San Jose, Spokane and San Jose, Costa Rica, as well as summer seasonal service to Boston, Anchorage and Bozeman. This additional service adds 12 percent more daily seats to LAX as we continue building Delta’s brand and presence in our West Coast gateways. By summer, Delta will operate 118 peak-day departures to 40 nonstop destinations -- including Sydney and Tokyo -- from Los Angeles.
Finally today, I want to pay tribute to ATL 777 Captain Cal Flanigan on behalf of all Delta pilots. This truly was one of the highlights of my professional career, I can tell you that. Cal flew his final flight today – Flight 16 from LAX to ATL – after a 45-year career at Delta, 36 years as a pilot and 25 as a captain, if you can believe that. Cal actually started his career at Delta in Tech Ops. This morning, he departed LAX with a water cannon salute, and was congratulated along his route of flight by Air Traffic Controllers as he made his way east. In Atlanta, he received another water cannon salute as he taxied to the gate for the last time. I was fortunate enough to be in the gatehouse to greet Cal and his family as he walked off the jet – and I was in good company as a crowd of well-wishers had gathered for the occasion. This included current and former chief pilots, both pilot and non-pilot employees and many of Cal’s close friends.
Cal’s retirement is significant for a couple of several reasons. As most of you know, he has been the number one Delta pilot on the seniority list for the past eight years. As he retires at age 65, he passes along the baton to the new number one pilot on the list: DTW 747 Captain P.R. Haley. But Cal’s retirement has also caused many of us who have worked with him or flown with him over the years to stop and take note. Here is a pilot who fully embraced the Delta family and culture throughout his career – during the good times and bad. He flew DC-9s for Delta when the company was operating that airplane with mostly intra-state hops from Atlanta to Macon, Atlanta to Columbus and Atlanta to Savannah. And he’s been here to witness firsthand the company grow to an international carrier – merging with Western, acquiring Pan Am assets and finally joining forces with Northwest. He’s seen Delta go through the heartache of bankruptcy but also emerge now as a top-tier airline. And through it all, he has never lost hope that the spirit of Delta would prevail. As he said so eloquently in his farewell letter to Richard Anderson, “Widgets will always be a part of my DNA.”
So, I end today’s message with a heartfelt congratulations to Cal and his family, and best wishes for a long and happy retirement from all of your colleagues in Flight Operations, including nearly 11,000 line pilots. And there’s something else special that will occur soon – the dedication of the In Command conference room as the Capt. Cal Flannigan Room. You’ll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks.
Well, that’s it for this week. As always, thanks for everything you do every day on the line on every flight for our customers and for each other. Please fly safe, thanks for calling in and I’ll talk to you again next week.
