Here are a few things I would do if I ruled the world...Some would take a sea change in the NW "culture," others could be implemented almost immediately:
1.First and foremost, this leadership team has to go. They have completely lost the trust of the masses, and I don't think there is anyway to win it back if the current regime stays in place. No forward progress can be made without it.
2. Roll the hubs. Use the gains in efficiency to grow the airline; either by strengthining core routes, or growing new ones. A/C utilization goes up, fixed costs come down. Even with the baby steps NW has made in the this direction, our planes sit on the ground for ridiculous amounts of time. Get 'em moving. More.
3. Find a way to combine the "enhanced severance" being offered with a transition to retirement. A bit of a cost upfront, but long term the overall labor cost goes down. As I noted on another thread, there'd be a stampede to HR to get the paperwork.
4. Turn DLH into a profit center. Lots of Airbii needing service out there. Fantastic amounts of tooling, worker skill and facility going to waste. Enough said.
5. Base the pilot pay scale on years of service rather than being predicated by type(s) flown, ala UPS. I have to think if nothing else this would mitigate training costs-at least a little.
6.Close Central Load. Have the ESL's (or operations agent) do it locally. Redistribute the displaced CSA's elsewhere at the MSP point(they're already there, BTW, so no geographic relocation is required).
7.Find a way (contractually/paywise/whatever) to have the F/A's help on turn/through cleans.
If there's a sation out there that currently has enough ESE's or CSA's to do a turn clean the way the passengers deserve, I'd like to hear about it...If price is the great equalizer when choosing a carrier, service breaks the tie. This is a start.
8.Bring back inflight entertainment. FFS, put a movie on already!
9. Find a way to schedule flight crews more efficiently.
10. Use BK to abdicate A/C leases and facility leases. I know the former is happening in great scale, but I haven't heard much about the latter. Hopefully, it's occuring. I think most line stations could "lose" 1 to 2 gates and not miss a beat. Mine could.
Anyway, there's 10 right off the top of my head. Feel free to shoot holes in my maifesto. Yeah, I know a lot of them would cost money to implement. My response to that is, what is it costing us to not do these things?
P.S. Is it possible to use some of your exit financing for hedging? I honestly don't know, but hedging (if ever possible again @ NW) would go along way toward forecasting and palnning for future costs.
