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On 7/9/2003 7:51:42 AM smfav8r wrote:
DLFlyer31
I hope your right and DAL mainline pilots get to fly the bigger RJ''s...they should be flying the 50 seaters also....not much smaller than the DC9''s they flew 15 years ago...which leads to my point.....till ALL the regionals get better pay scales, it will be hard for management of any airline to pass up a code share....it''s just economics!!!
ACA is already flying the DorkJet for DAL out of LGA...why not more....especially if it''s cheaper than Comair/ASA...why not downsize Comair/ASA for a code share with ACA if it''s cheaper....not any different than getting rid of DC9''s or 737''s at any mainline and replacing them with RJ''s.....just an opinion of a guy who''s been furoughed way too many times!!!
Keep the dirty side down and the pointy end foward!!!
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I can''t imagine that DALPA would ever allow the 90-100 seater to go to a regional. Especially if DL management wants concessions, part of the bargain will be that the 90-100 seaters stay at mainline. The only possible scenario I can imagine would be if DALPA gets greedy and sells the 90-100 seaters away in order to keep the higher pay on the big metal (757/767/777). This is exactly what happened in 2000 with the CRJ700. DALPA went for top pay, but gave up any hope of ever flying the 70 seater.
Why not more ACA if they''re cheaper? Well, first of all, they''re not necessarily cheaper. This is likely one of the realizations that UA has reached also and why the negotiations between UA and ACA have turned so nasty.
In fact, everything I have heard points to ACA being DL''s most expensive regional, which might explain why ACA has seen NO growth on the DL side, while Comair,ASA,SkyWest and Chautauqua have all grown.
There''s another reason why I see DL restricting how much they farm out to other regionals. Comair and ASA may not always have the cheapest costs, however they are wholly-owned by DL. Any profits they generate, go to DL and DL alone. ACA, Chautauqua and SkyWest are not wholly-owned and operate on fee-per-departure schemes. They may have lower costs, but much of the profit from those lower costs ends up in the regionals pockets and not DL''s pockets. In the past many of the major''s tolerated this, however times are changing.
For instance, Comair''s cost have risen substantially over the past few years and the Comair pilots (after the nasty strike) have better pay than most of their regional counterparts. However, that hasn''t stopped DL from growing Comair at a tremendous speed over the last year. Simultaneously, DL''s growth on the SkyWest and especially ACA side has slowed. The only place where Comair lost out was in MCO. Because of the extremely low-yield nature of MCO, Comair''s recent cost increases and lack of a small RJ (DL wanted a 35-40 seat plane for thinner routes) cost them the MCO hub which was farmed to Chautauqua.
So for ACA, they''d better get an agreement with UA, because DL isn''t going to be their knight in shining armor.