More Jobs Cut in MSP

[eolesen]

there are no plans for any reductions in MN... .be sure and let us know if that turns out not to be the case.

And taxes won't go up for anyone earning less than $250k per year...

As noted, once representation issues are signed, sealed and delivered, most realists (including friends at DL HDQ) expect Project Visine to resume with a vengeance. Don't know if the call center is union or not, but transferring to ATL or some other lovely location won't be economically viable for MN homeowners, especially up on the range.

 

[WorldTraveler]

And taxes won't go up for anyone earning less than $250k per year...

As noted, once representation issues are signed, sealed and delivered, most realists (including friends at DL HDQ) expect Project Visine to resume with a vengeance. Don't know if the call center is union or not, but transferring to ATL or some other lovely location won't be economically viable for MN homeowners, especially up on the range.

transferring for anyone isn't terribly viable when the housing market is in the tank. The problem is to fix the economy and the housing market.
But, again, there is no announcement that any res office is closing or that anyone would be forced to relocate.
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The airline industry is notable for the requirement for employees to move from one place to another but even that has not happened here.
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Believe it or not, but someone else can succeed along w/ you... you winning doesn't mean someone else else has to lose. Focus on AA's turnaround and quit worrying if DL does well or not. They are doing what they need to do secure the future for their stockholders and employees.

 

[Kev3188]

The majority of those folks in MSP still have contracts in place. They are going to tread softly until the finalization of the NMB union outcome debacles. Until then, they will eliminate admin (merit) jobs.

2BnB

+1

After that, all bets are off. The company may talk about "no plans top downsize MSP," and they're unlikely to do so when it comes to flight activity. It's simply too profitable of a station. What is already happening-and almost assuredly likely to accelerate if the votes fail- is the loss of career positions, and replacing them with revolving door jobs. DGS, regional Elite, ready reserves, and so on are/were all counted in the 10,000 DL was obligated to maintain.

Don't know if the call center is union or not...

It is.

 

[southwind]

The majority of those folks in MSP still have contracts in place. They are going to tread softly until the finalization of the NMB union outcome debacles. Until then, they will eliminate admin (merit) jobs.

2BnB

BTW...............how much longer is the NMB and unions going to drag this out?

Thought the investigation had been concluded....................probably didn't get the results they wanted !

 

[eolesen]

Believe it or not, but someone else can succeed along w/ you... you winning doesn't mean someone else else has to lose. Focus on AA's turnaround and quit worrying if DL does well or not. They are doing what they need to do secure the future for their stockholders and employees.

I could care less if AA or DL succeed or fail, frankly. I don't work for either, nor am I doing work with either one at the present time.

You seem to be able to comment on anything you want on any airline, so why the double standard?...

Don't bother answering.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I could care less if AA or DL succeed or fail, frankly. I don't work for either, nor am I doing work with either one at the present time.

You seem to be able to comment on anything you want on any airline, so why the double standard?...

Don't bother answering.

You along with anyone else are free to post on any forum discussing any airline you want... that is the nature of this board.
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You are also free to make whatever predictions you want about the outcome of DL's future or that of any other airline. But if you or anyone else make predictions based on personal opinions rather than actual facts and data, the results will demonstrate the lack of academic rigor.
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Just a couple illustrations....
you argued for weeks on a thread on this forum that WN would come to ATL and expand aggressively despite the evidence I presented that WN is not exempt from the basic laws of economics that affect airlines... including that WN is a higher cost airline that obtains higher fares than FL who is DL's current ATL competition, WN has not succeeded in obtaining more than a 20% market share in any large DL hub city, WN has to face labor integration issues, and WN's network operates very differently than FL's. We are now seeing that WN is indeed facing significant resistance in raising fares and faces major labor integration hurdles - which along w/ other factors has caused WN to SHRINK its acquired ATL operation rather than raise it.
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more recently, the contrast between DL's performance and that of other carriers is very striking... of DL's largest competitors, DL's domestic RASM increase was double that of AA's and 8X higher than WN's.
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DL paid 5 cent per gallon less for jet fuel in the most recent quarter than AA or WN.... many of us will drive a bit further to save 5 cents per gallon... given that WN buys 1/2 billion gallons per quarter, the difference in overall cost is significant.
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So, feel free to contribute. Just know that if you make assessments/predictions/conclusions that aren't based on history and solid data, then the chances that your ideas will prove not to be true are quite high.
And the same principle applies regardless of what airline we are talking about and in what context.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Since UA has just reported their 3rd quarter results, the 3rd quarter results for the big 4 is now complete....
DL and UA had very comparable revenue and fuel results but UA's non-fuel CASM grew fairly significantly... exactly what some people like Arpey predicted would happen. Thus DL's higher operating margin reflects the fact that DL is growing revenue as good or better than its peers and is combining that with as good as or better cost control.
DL now has better than a 10% non-fuel core CASM advantage over UA and 20% over AA.
What is more significant is that DL's CASM on the same basis is very close to WN's... which means as I have said all along that DL is better positioned to compete with WN than any other network carrier. Even if you stage length adjust DL's CASM to WN's, DL's cost disadvantage relative to WN is fairly small and is more than offset by much better revenue performance.
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These are basic facts that cannot be overlooked when talking about the state of the airline industry - current or future.

 

[eolesen]

Wow, two diversionary posts that have nothing to do with Minnesota job cuts.

WT, you missed your true calling. You should have gone into Corp Comm.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Wow, two diversionary posts that have nothing to do with Minnesota job cuts.

uh... DL paid off the loan... that's as far as it goes.

talking about DL's financial results is no more diversionary than what you have posted... I'll stick to the facts.

 

[FWAAA]

Since UA has just reported their 3rd quarter results, the 3rd quarter results for the big 4 is now complete....
DL and UA had very comparable revenue and fuel results but UA's non-fuel CASM grew fairly significantly... exactly what some people like Arpey predicted would happen. Thus DL's higher operating margin reflects the fact that DL is growing revenue as good or better than its peers and is combining that with as good as or better cost control.
DL now has better than a 10% non-fuel core CASM advantage over UA and 20% over AA.
What is more significant is that DL's CASM on the same basis is very close to WN's... which means as I have said all along that DL is better positioned to compete with WN than any other network carrier. Even if you stage length adjust DL's CASM to WN's, DL's cost disadvantage relative to WN is fairly small and is more than offset by much better revenue performance.
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These are basic facts that cannot be overlooked when talking about the state of the airline industry - current or future.

Part of the bolded portion is not accurate, but I've come to expect that.

Uhh, DL's mainline CASM advantage over AA in Q3 was less than 20%. I see a DL mainline ex-fuel mainline CASM of 7.35 cents v. 8.92 cents for AA; DL's mainline ex-fuel CASM was 82.4% of AA's, or an advantage of 17.6% over AA (not exactly as large as 20%).

Exaggerated stats; those certainly are basic facts that are beyond the headlines.

It gets even more interesting, however, as DL excludes $0.0030 related to profit sharing in computing its 7.35 cent ex-fuel mainline CASM. Profit sharing is a component of employee wages. To be fair, it's an expense AA isn't paying and probably won't pay for the foreseeable future. Adding it back means that DL's ex-fuel, ex-special item (but including all wages) mainline CASM of 7.65 cents or 85.8% of AA, equal to a 14.2% advantage over AA.

 

[WorldTraveler]

So you believe 17.6% is an acceptable advantage to give your competitor? And do forgive me for exaggerating by 2.4%... it is a terribly distorted picture of reality.
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yes, you are absolutely right that AA isn't paying profit sharing... which is why the pay disadvantage for AA employees is getting worse
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so, yes, let's ask the question one more time... is a 14.2% cost disadvantage an acceptable position for a carrier to be in against a larger and more aggressive competitor?
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Is it apparent why DL is picking off one key AA market after another for new DL service.... because as I've noted before, AA does attract plenty of good revenue. The problem is their high costs mean they can't defend their markets... not from low fare carriers and not from their network peers.
It's no surprise that DL has been able to garner 15% of the local LGA-ORD market and they aren't even flying RJs.
Thus, it is no surprise that DL jumped on the opportunity to fly BOS and MIA to LHR with slots that AA and BA had to divest in order to get their ATI deal done and DL is now clearly established in those markets.
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What markets might we see next?
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This isn't Wednesday night bingo. It's business and business is moved by real money.
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Oh, did you notice that DL's consolidated (mainline plus regional) ex-fuel CASM is lower than UA's mainline CASM.... which might also explain why DL is doing as well as they are in markets like LGA-ORD.

 

[FWAAA]

So you believe 17.6% is an acceptable advantage to give your competitor? And do forgive me for exaggerating by 2.4%... it is a terribly distorted picture of reality.

Typical behaviour of someone who repeatedly embellishes their posts and is caught doing so. Deflect. Same pattern as every other time I've pointed out similar rounding errors (all of which paint DL in a more favorable light than warranted by accurate numbers).

Your compulsion to stretch the numbers (and very rarely show your work) makes me suspect each and every one of your diatribes and all of the percentages contained therein. Assertions about the revenue share of DL and its competitors, while possibly accurate, appear to be made up. Just like the falsehood I bolded earlier today.

Once you've been shown to have little regard for facts (truth), it's difficult to believe anything you post. You can do better.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Typical behaviour of someone who repeatedly embellishes their posts and is caught doing so. Deflect. Same pattern as every other time I've pointed out similar rounding errors (all of which paint DL in a more favorable light than warranted by accurate numbers).

Your compulsion to stretch the numbers (and very rarely show your work) makes me suspect each and every one of your diatribes and all of the percentages contained therein. Assertions about the revenue share of DL and its competitors, while possibly accurate, appear to be made up. Just like the falsehood I bolded earlier today.

Once you've been shown to have little regard for facts (truth), it's difficult to believe anything you post. You can do better.

which is nothing more than a not so veiled attempt to detract from the very obvious realities which exist... which is that DL is running a good airline in contrast to other AAirlines that can't seem to get it together despite 8 years of trying and that DL and UA both are doing EXACTLY what experts said would happen when reorganized airlines merge.
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So when your teAAm gets it figured out and begins to cut DL and UA's ability to grow and gain market share, then you might have something to crow about....
but for now your efforts to pick at rounding errors and your little sidekick's Efforts at fantasizing about DL failures which aren't happening highlight your joint frustrations in being unable to change the basic realities of the game - and the fact that I have said for years that exactly this situation would develop.

 

[2BlacknBlue]

BTW...............how much longer is the NMB and unions going to drag this out?

Thought the investigation had been concluded....................probably didn't get the results they wanted !

Puleeeeeze....I saw the intervention with my own eyes. Hopefully the NMB gets it right!

 

[eolesen]

Unless WT is trying to claim that DL's cost advantage over anyone is because of killing off jobs in Minnesota, bringing up said cost advantage is really just more deflection.

It's true that paying off the loan hasn't caused any immediate job losses. But I'd be willing to bet a McRib combo meal that a year from now that there are going to be another 1000 or more jobs cut just in Minnesota.