Pinnacle says Delta intends to terminate contract!

Look at the airlines left, the equipment they utilize, the markets they serve, the quality of contract they have with Delta, Delta's possible "excess" capapcity, and come to your own conclusions. You might also look at the profitability of the routes they serve, aka Florida = not very profitable. If there are more cuts to come, these are points Delta will certainly consider. I'm sure Delta doesn't enjoy paying for fuel on routes/equipment they deem unnecessary or unprofitable in the current market.


meyers9163 said:
So first Mesa, now Pinnacle.... So as much as we tend to put others down who's next? ASA/Comair/SKW/RAH/Xjet? (did I miss any) Just sickens ya to see such. I know they are using the meeting the contract as the way of getting out but give me a break. Just this should be a big eye opening event to all of us that anyones job can be gone tomorrow. This in a way just seems to be DAL's way of trying to cut their domestic routes and thus them not giving two S&&ts about anyone they will plow under while doing so.

Regardless perhaps I'm way off but this just makes ya wonder whats next for DAL? Now I know there's a lot of dislike out there for Mesa/Pinnacle but the fact of the matter is anyone could be next, or am I missing something?
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And now there's another kink in the chain. From CNBC this morning:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=768944643

Go to about the 3 minute mark, and Anderson talks about the Delta-Pinnacle issue. Two things. First off, look where he's being broadcast from. Memphis, TN. Second, he doesn't say the issue is closed. His words are something like "we're going to stay in negotiations with Pinnacle." Something's up, and I got no clue what it is. It's either gonna be really good or really bad for the pilots, at least that's what my gut tells me.
 
H46Bubba said:
I'll have to wait till this weeks bulletin comes out on Friday. I'll give an update as to who will take over the ATL lines you guys were flying. They're not going to let the routes drop unless it's a back door way to cut domestic service due to high fule prices. We'll just have to wait and see.
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From Deltanet:

We have notified Pinnacle Airlines of our election to terminate its Delta Connection contract effective July 31 because of performance. We expect the operational pull down to be orderly and have minimal impact to our customers.
“Our customers rely on Delta and Delta Connection carriers for outstanding service, and we will continue to insist on that level of performance from our business partners,” said Don Bornhorst, s.v.p.-Delta Connection. “Pinnacle’s operational performance has fallen below minimum levels required under the contract. Today, it’s more important than ever that Delta and its Delta Connection partners meet operational and customer service levels.”
We have an agreement with Pinnacle to operate 16 CRJ-900 aircraft, nine of which are in service. We’ll choose another connection carrier to operate the former Pinnacle routes.
Pinnacle has operated as a Delta Connection carrier since December 2007.
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kellwolf said:
Here's what I think. They should look at what performance each of us negotiated and agreed to in the individual carriage contracts.....and nothing else. It's fine to use the performance numbers when the contract is up to re-negotiate or decide if it should be renewed then. But I can't sign a deal with a lawn care company, see the guy across the street is getting better service and terminate the deal based on that. I'd be slapped with breach of contract and lose in roughly 1.8 seconds. Part of the problem we have here is everything is so cloak and dagger. We don't know what our performance goals are, so we as employees (and stakeholders in the company) don't know where we stand. Is the on-time arrival goal 67% for the month or 70%? Should I actually TRY to get there on time by burning extra gas or try to save money by flying the profile? If the company was more forthcoming on issues like this, we'd be better informed as employees and know what we need to do to keep our jobs and positions. Unfortunately, upper management deems this "need to know" info, the people that DO know about it have signed a confidentiality agreement and we get vague things like "We hit our target number for the month." The sad thing is I don't know if we have a leg to stand on. I can find out what our on-time performance was for each individual month (along with if the delays were air carrier induced, ATC or weather), but I have no idea what the goals were in the contract. If I trusted management a bit more, I might not care as much. Our management, however, likes to keep us in the dark or spread misinformation, which, of course, breeds mistrust. My livelihood is in the hands of a group of people I don't trust, and that scares me.



Luckily, the employees aren't getting the blame for this one.....yet. With our performance numbers over the past year (and the stellar ones we're putting up now) along with our cost structure, it shouldn't be a problem for our management to find homes for those 16 jets. The albatross for the company is the lack of a pilot contract. With a 99% strike vote, any carrier that we bid on an RFP for is gonna have that in the back of their minds. With oil where it is now, no one can really afford a 1 day strike, much less a week or two.

Personally, I think ASA between major airlines and their regional partners should be public knowledge. I don't see how they aren't with publicly traded companies like Pinnacle. How do we know our management didn't sign a crappy deal? I'd like to know how effective my management team is at negotiating contracts that benefit BOTH sides rather than just signing any deal that comes along. I'm sure the shareholders (especially since our stock is hovering near a 52 week low and fallen $15 a share in a year) would like to know that as well.
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I'm with you there... I don't quite understand how they get these performance numbers, because I certainly don't believe that they're the fault of flight crews or the company actually operating the flight... Almost all regionals I know of have separate companies operating the ground activity as well as the gate activity at certain airports. Much like enzymes in a biological process, its all dependent on the slowest of those factors- who's gonna hold us up today? Are they just basing these numbers on cancellations? Late departures (usually not the flight crew/company's fault, but the stations)?
 
sorrygottarunway said:
I'm with you there... I don't quite understand how they get these performance numbers, because I certainly don't believe that they're the fault of flight crews or the company actually operating the flight... Almost all regionals I know of have separate companies operating the ground activity as well as the gate activity at certain airports. Much like enzymes in a biological process, its all dependent on the slowest of those factors- who's gonna hold us up today? Are they just basing these numbers on cancellations? Late departures (usually not the flight crew/company's fault, but the stations)?
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You are right. I really don't know where the numbers come from too. If you look at our JFK numbers, we should have been cut a while ago. But like I was telling Kellwolf, we have no control over 98% of the delays. We can't be on time if ATC delays us or if DL ramp has no space for us upon arrival. The classic was a couple days ago when we were heading to YUL and the rampers lost the passengers bags. It was an hour delay. I really don't know what the numbers are like for PNCL in ATL, but Freedom got the shaft for the JFK ops.
 
If we lose Delta, all I gotta say is we need to find SOME way of ditching Mesaba in MSP and DTW. We're probably gonna have to compete with them directly to keep routes under the new Delta, and having your direct competitor running ALL of your ground ops in two of your three hubs? Not good.
 
kellwolf said:
If we lose Delta, all I gotta say is we need to find SOME way of ditching Mesaba in MSP and DTW. We're probably gonna have to compete with them directly to keep routes under the new Delta, and having your direct competitor running ALL of your ground ops in two of your three hubs? Not good.
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Man its soooooo funny that you say that. Im in on reserve in DTW for the month of June. So, last week I was trying to jumpseat to Nashville to visit my dad for a few days on Pinnacle. The flight was full so I was able to sit up front in the jumpseat, everything is good at that point. Next thing you know the crew gets a message....the folks on the ground lost 40 bags that were supposed to be on the flight and as a result the plane ended up being nose heavy. Becuase of that, myself and 3 pax had to get off. That SUCKED! (Luckily I got on a SWA flight an hour later ;)) So, yeah I see where you're coming from. Ive also noticed several Pinnacle flights leaving late from DTW as well, not sure what the cause was though.......
 
SmoothLanderJ said:
Man its soooooo funny that you say that. Im in on reserve in DTW for the month of June. So, last week I was trying to jumpseat to Nashville to visit my dad for a few days on Pinnacle. The flight was full so I was able to sit up front in the jumpseat, everything is good at that point. Next thing you know the crew gets a message....the folks on the ground lost 40 bags that were supposed to be on the flight and as a result the plane ended up being nose heavy. Becuase of that, myself and 3 pax had to get off. That SUCKED! (Luckily I got on a SWA flight an hour later ;)) So, yeah I see where you're coming from. Ive also noticed several Pinnacle flights leaving late from DTW as well, not sure what the cause was though.......
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40 Bags!:eek: Holy crap! I understand losing a few; but 40? That's probably almost all the bags from just about every passenger on the plane! Great job to whatever genious did that!:D:sarcasm:
 
Oh, we pushed back in DTW one night, and I noticed as we were pushing back that the gate check bags WERE STILL IN THE JETBRIDGE! Mentioned something to the tug driver, whose response was "Uh....Oops. Well, um, do you want to go back?" So, we said yeah, we haven't started #1 yet. Pull us back in and load the bags.
 
kellwolf said:
And now there's another kink in the chain. From CNBC this morning:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=768944643

Go to about the 3 minute mark, and Anderson talks about the Delta-Pinnacle issue. Two things. First off, look where he's being broadcast from. Memphis, TN. Second, he doesn't say the issue is closed. His words are something like "we're going to stay in negotiations with Pinnacle." Something's up, and I got no clue what it is. It's either gonna be really good or really bad for the pilots, at least that's what my gut tells me.
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Something really good for the pilots??? A true optomist.
 
kellwolf said:
And now there's another kink in the chain. From CNBC this morning:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=768944643

Go to about the 3 minute mark, and Anderson talks about the Delta-Pinnacle issue. Two things. First off, look where he's being broadcast from. Memphis, TN. Second, he doesn't say the issue is closed. His words are something like "we're going to stay in negotiations with Pinnacle." Something's up, and I got no clue what it is. It's either gonna be really good or really bad for the pilots, at least that's what my gut tells me.
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my guess is it will be somewhere along the lines of SIGN THIS "INDUSTRY AVERAGE" CONTRACT OR WE'RE DONE!!
 
Kingairer said:
Theyre already at or below industry avg....so theyve already done that.
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Thats exactly what I was thinking. I don't think Pinnacle did anything wrong. I guessing this is another backdoor attempt to shed regional carriers. They want to reduce it to 4 and the aren't playing around.

So that leaves Comair, Skywest, ASA, Shuttle America, and Chicken Taco. One more to go?
 
blee256 said:
my guess is it will be somewhere along the lines of SIGN THIS "INDUSTRY AVERAGE" CONTRACT OR WE'RE DONE!!
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That's what we thought to. According to Scott on a conference call just last night, he was surprised they DIDN'T start asking for concessions in negotiations this week. In fact....it was the OPPOSITE! They're starting to move in the right direction on negotiations. They met Tues-Fri, more or less morning-late night every day, and made a lot of progress. What we've got left are just a handful of things and ironing out scope......and management for the first time is starting to come down on scope, which tells me something's up. No deal signed yet, but more meetings scheduled starting next Thurs. We may finally be getting close since management is starting to negotiate rather than just say "no" every time a proposal comes across the desk.

If they're smart (and I know they're not dumb, but sometimes I wonder about smart), they've realized that our performance numbers tanked for a simple reason.....no one cares. When morale hits that point, something's gotta give. A new contract that rewards the pilots could shift morale in a positive direction to the point people start going out of their way to make sure we hit those target goals again. Of course, it'd be nice to know what those targets are in the first place.....
 
I can almost guarantee that, there are no companies that will be signing legandary contracts in the next year. More likely, theyll be signing contracts that are proposed as survival contracts.
 
Kingairer said:
I can almost guarantee that, there are no companies that will be signing legandary contracts in the next year. More likely, theyll be signing contracts that are proposed as survival contracts.
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But for 9E would it take much to improve their contract? It wouldnt take a legandary contract to improve things there.
 
Saw what appeared to be a Pinnacle -900 on the old NWA maintenance ramp this afternoon on my way out to my car.

NXXXPQ something.

meyers9163 said:
But for 9E would it take much to improve their contract? It wouldnt take a legandary contract to improve things there.
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A -900 rate that is higher than the leading -200 rates in the country would be a great start.

Really can't jack up the house when guys are going to accept a -900 rate (arbitrated. . .fine fine. . .maybe next time right? Please?) that is lower than the majority of -200 rates.

Idiot arbitrators.
 
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