I can only comment on what I know. Lax - nrt was before the settlement of arbitration .Gross weight and advertised performance does not equal actual implementation. Gross weight and takeoff performance to me is not range but pax and cargo. What is in a seating chart or oag can be changed. Plus cruise of the 767 and a330 can be about the same. It is all about what penalty you are willing to accept.
Thanks, Meto.
I do know that LAX-NRT was pushing the limits of the 333 and it was only used in the summer so I am pretty confident that was the effective limit of that aircraft…..
Perhaps you know, but I don’t think the 333 enhancements add weight to the aircraft like what the LR did compared to the ER, but I haven’t heard the weights and Airbus hasn’t published them.
Thus it would seem that increasing the MTOW w/ no increase in the OEW should result in greater range, assuming the MTOW was limiting range which appeared to the case - or what am I missing?.
I am hoping for the sake of DL and for the sake of the pilot group that DL bought airplanes that can fly 12+ hours because it means more routes can be opened and more pilots will be needed. A plane that is limited to 12 hours doesn’t really accomplish much on the Pacific; DL has even pushed 767s over the 12 hour line in order to serve some of the routes it needs to open so that is why I am hoping the 333 will lead to more Pacific growth…. More pilots… etc.
Given that these planes are coming pretty quickly, I expect we’ll know fairly soon – and I would still bet the 333s will be back on LAX-NRT next summer since the main reason they were pulled off is because they didn’t have lie flat business class this summer and DL made the commitment that all Pacific routes would have lie flat business class.
But we also kept *many* more than the company wanted. That simply wouldn't have happened if we weren't represented.
At any rate, now that the honeymoon's over, I suspect we'll start seeing stations get whacked. They'll distract everyone with potential raises, then very quietly "transition" the FNT & GRB's of the world to a 3PP...
Somewhere on this site, a poster talked about learning to pet a bunny before breaking it's neck; it's a perfect analogy...
Yes, I know the IAM was successful in saving stations compared to what NW had asked for, but I think you are making a jump in logic to assume that the relationship that existed between NW and IAM is the same type of relationship and economics that exists with DL. Neither are the case.
I think you also assume that DL will drop the hatchet because you believe they can get away with it now – but it is far more likely that they would have made the cuts if they thought they needed to do so based on economics.
ANC and the freighter operation was a very early cut that DL made; that was not something they would have done if they were afraid that labor was watching.
How can UA have mainline employees to this day at ALB, MDT, ROC, etc but not MIA and at one point STL? I get all airlines have different strategies and markets that are strong suits but seriously in 2013 it's hard to imagine UA keeping those stations open. Could it be they had disproportionally senior workers and didn't want to pay top scale and give away so much vacation time?
The main reason why UA can’t support mainline employees in many cities is because they don’t carry anywhere near the number of passengers from medium and small size cities that DL does. UA’s network is much more heavily focused on the local market in their hubs rather than on connecting traffic THRU their hubs. UA’s abundance of RJs in smaller cities completely explains this. Remember, even at ORD, UA has twice as many RJ flights as they have mainline flights.
The economics of UA’s operation are much more heavily concentrated in their largest markets compared to DL and thus the people have to be placed where the money is made.
No threshhold(s) whatsoever.
How does it work for them? They can do whatever they want, whenever they want...
And again, they also have the freedom to retain cities that have fallen below what other carriers have used as the threshold for outsourced airport personnel.
It is precisely now that the 717s are arriving with bases in ATL and DTW that it should be obvious that many cities will be staffed with mainline personnel working mainline flights that were only RJs a few years ago. When I walk thru the domestic concourses at ATL, esp. in the evening, I often take a double take at some of the cities that have mainline service that didn’t a few years ago. That seem trend will spread to DTW and perhaps NYC with those hubs connected to cities throughout the eastern US.
And once again, I understand your focus is on restoring and protecting ramp jobs but DL still has many of its own people at airports that other airlines have left to subcontractors… and it is precisely as the 717s arrive and DL has mainline personnel, that DL’s service will be perceived as more valuable and even more traffic will shift to DL.
DL is building on the historic small and medium size strength that DL and NW both had from their networks and are able to protect staff accordingly.
