DeltaWest news

JEP

Does It Really Matter....?
Staff member
from the soon-to-be former home of NWA:

Delta Air Lines, newly wed to Twin Cities-based Northwest Airlines, said today that it will lower capacity across the board in 2009 for both carriers based on consumer demand and suggested that it needs to shed jobs.


Star-Tribune article
 
Yay!:rolleyes::sarcasm: More furloghs at Comair and we get to add more planes to the used car lot! I can see it now!:mad:
 
Yay!:rolleyes::sarcasm: More furloghs at Comair and we get to add more planes to the used car lot! I can see it now!:mad:

And that would suck, man.


We're already at the bare bones for aircraft unless they pull a fast one to re-negotiate our two ASAs with NWA and Delta. I did hear that our aircraft utilization is gonna drop about 3 hours per aircraft based just on how Delta schedules flights. Which means we'll probably still have the same number of planes but need fewer crews. Great.
 
I'd be willing to bet unless they find another CPA some of those planes will go to the desert. No sense in paying leases on airplanes you're using 3 hours a day.
 
But....but....no base closures and no furloughs. They said!

Unfortunately that only applied to the mainline. Based on the "chatter" coming from the 4th floor, this announcement looks like the vast majority of domestic cuts will be on the DCI side. For the international side, we'll see a reduction in frequencies on certain city pairs as aircraft are pulled offline for cabin refurbishment and painting.

Sorry for the bad news, I've been furloughed and it sucks.:(
 
Wouldn't be the end of the world if I go back to being an FO... get off reserve for one thing. Would HATE to see this place furlough, though.
 
I'd be willing to bet unless they find another CPA some of those planes will go to the desert. No sense in paying leases on airplanes you're using 3 hours a day.

I think kellwolf may have left his statement a little non-detailed. The 3 hour figure relates to utilization per day. At our peak on the NWA -200 side we have operated at almost 9 hours per plane per day, we are now down below 8. The DL side is only something like 6 hours of day utilization and it is expected that our schedules (marketing) will go towards the DL way of schedule by marketing (load yield) vs. NWA's operational scheduling. This could potentially ripple across the entire 200/900 fleet reducing the total block time utilization per day and causing the company to not require as many crews. The -200 guys average over 6 hours flying per day (on the typical trips). It will be hard to design 28 hour 4-day trips for most lineholders with only 6 hour a day airframe usage in leu of 9 hours. We are extremely staff efficient on the -200 side, not so much on the -900 with the DL marketing. Hope that clears that up.
 
We are extremely staff efficient on the -200 side, not so much on the -900 with the DL marketing. Hope that clears that up.


Ken, I think you might have accidentally hit on something. With Delta soon to be making the marketing schedule for the -200s as well......we might be just as staff "inefficient" on the -200 side soon.

Fact is, unless they re-negotiate the ASA, they can't reduce us below 124 50 seat airframes and 16 76 seat airframes, which is what we're at already. The planes won't get parked, but some pilots might....
 
We work 10-11 hours a day/plane.

That 6 hour figure was for pilots. The planes have been flying roughly 8 hours a day. I'm pretty sure Alaska has a better fleet utilization than NWA, but I don't have numbers for the mainline utilization at NWA.
 
We work 10-11 hours a day/plane.


DEC. 34552 marketing hours /117 sched in service for scheduling= 295/31days= 9.5hrs/day. This assumes all hours advertised in the bid pack and allowing for the 7 airframes (124-117) that are basically the spares/broke planes. Our schedules reflect the reduction with the average of 5:30 block per duty period. As a reference we were at 5:45-6:00 per duty period and 10.5 hours block per airframe per day from may-aug. This :15-:30 min change per day working is the difference between our current 75 hour lines vs. the 90+ hour lines with the same days worked. This is a difference in inefficiency. Just using numbers.
 
My mistake. I thought he was talking about airframe utilization.


It's all good. I don't know about you but the last few months have been a good improvement in QOL with the better crew:hours ratio.

FWIW my wife doesn't even understand me many times so I am sure strangers on the internet are left quite perplexed at times.
 
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