While I am in the camp that the  strike authorization by the Delta Pilots is a negotiating tactic, it also puts the future of the airline into the hands of the union management, not its members. And that  is very scary if you are associated or fly Delta.

The pilots have the best job they will ever have. In the face of 40 percent pay cuts, it still is the best job they will ever have. The combination of hours and pay is exceptional even with the reductions. They would be fools to give this up. Most of the young pilots have been furloughed and the rest are senior guys who are not going to start over in this tight marketplace.

The scary part is ALPA, the pilots union. They are a body that is not in this solely for Delta. The  lead negotiator, Lee Moak, is asking for the sole discretion to call a strike. This means that the strike authorization vote of the past week has now taken the decision to strike out of the rank and file pilots and put it in the hands of union management and potentially one man.

So we are looking at 50,000 or more jobs being held by a union leader as Delta is not in any position to survive a strike. This means that one man who thinks playing hardball could bring down an airline. The pilots gave up their input because the union leaders sold them it was a negotiating position. I wonder how many of them would have voted for this if they knew that 1 man held their future in their hands.

That is a very, very scary proposition.

Delta Air Lines negotiations with their pilots have  taken a contentious  turn as the pilots have authorized a strike vote by a wide margin. An arbitration panel is looking at the airlines request to void the pilots contract, and if this happens the union has the power to call a strike.

The 94.7% vote in favor of authorizing a strike gives union leaders the authority to set a strike date. They didn’t set a date immediately and gave no indication exactly when they might act.
The results were announced in a memo to pilots from the chairman of the union’s executive committee.
An arbitration panel must decide by April 15 whether to void the pilots contract. The union has said it will strike if its contract is rejected.
The nation’s third largest carrier, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has said a strike would put it out of business. via USATODAY.com

Venezuela has postponed its new restrictions on US airlines into their country for one month after talks with the US State Department. The country was planning on curtailing the ability for American, Delta, and Continental Airlines to fly into the country, but threats from the State Department to restrict further travel from Venezuela into the United States if these sanctions went into effect.

The threatened airline restrictions had heightened political tensions between left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the United States, which receives about 15 percent of its energy imports from Venezuela, the world’s No. 5 oil exporter.

Venezuela says it has improved aviation safety standards since it was first downgraded by the FAA in 1995, a move that imposed restrictions on Venezuelan airline services.

Under the FAA category two status, local airlines must lease aircraft and crew from a category one country to fly to U.S. airports and cannot expand flight services. Venezuelan airlines said they backed the ban because they wanted to force the United States to lift the restrictions.

Washington is caught in a heated dispute with Chavez over his close ties to Cuba and Iran. A self-styled socialist revolutionary, Chavez accuses U.S. officials of working to oust him while they counter that he is a threat to democracy.

First Delta Airlines completed negotiations on restructuring their debt with American Express and General Electric. This will free upwards of 30 million dollars and provide the ability to increase their fuel hedges.

Then they announce the hiring of Ernst and Young to serve as Delta’s accounting firm, replacing Deloitte and Touche.

Concerning Delta’s ComAir subsidiaries contract negotiations with their flight attendants, the company has asked the courts to throw out their contract. They are looking for 42 million in cost savings. If this dies not work, Delta’s CFO will explore selling the regional carrier.

Delta Airlines in the face of a tough fight with its Pilot’s Union and working hard to emerge as a profitable company out of bankruptcy has worked hard revamping its schedule both internationally and domestically. They are planning on flying 1,000 flights a day out of Atlanta to 230 destinations around the world during the peak summer months and then ramping down the schedules the rest of the year. This is an increase of 30 destinations from last summer.

Delta has identified 22 high-demand destinations where its summer schedule will be expanded during May and June. These include: Baltimore, Dallas Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle.
“As we prepare for Delta’s busiest summer travel season ever, we are seeing increased demand for travel via Atlanta as more customers choose the convenience of flying through Delta’s largest hub to connect to nearly 230 worldwide destinations,” said Bob Cortelyou, vice president of network planning.
“Delta will fly to more destinations this summer from Atlanta than any other previous year.” via CheapFlights.com.

A man who was having his shoes checked for explosive residue and left in the middle of the inspection forced the closing of LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, NY Friday. The TSA closed the terminal and evacuated it, forcing every passenger to go  through security again. After a long and fruitless search with security dogs without any success, the airport reopened Friday evening.

Authorities stopped looking for the man early Friday evening after conducting an extensive search for him in the terminal, causing flight delays into Friday evening.
“We suspect that he left the checkpoint under the impression that his screening was complete,” TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said. “The fact that the machine alarmed should not be a cause for concern as some commonly found substances can set it off.”
Outgoing flights at Delta’s terminal D were immediately halted after the man walked away. About an hour later, at 3:48 p.m. authorities evacuated the secure area of the terminal beyond the checkpoints while searching for the man using canine police units. via wnbc.com

The Sky Team Pilots Association representing the pilots for all of the Sky Team airlines worldwide have signed a support agreement to support the Delta and Northwest pilots in their contract negotiations with their respective airlines. They are saying that they support the efforts of the pilots in their contract negotiations.

However, will these pilots also support the pilots and their families if the airlines shut down because of hard ball tactics? It is very easy to use words and concepts when the airlines are fighting for survival.

Today’s Mutual Assistance Agreement calls upon member pilots to “pledge [their] wholehearted and unwavering support to the pilots of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines in their effort to achieve a comprehensive agreement with the airline and avoid a rejection of their contract by management.” The Agreement also provides for specific and extensive measures of mutual support should the Delta or Northwest pilots exercise a legal strike in response to Delta and Northwest management’s actions. via ALPA News Release.

And even though I probably do not agree with this myself, it does make you wonder. All of these airlines are not doing well. With Delta’s and Northwest’s focus on international flying, would the demise of either Delta or Northwest help or hurt these other pilots and their own job security? My bet is it would help them.

My hopes and prayers are that the pilots for Delta and Northwest do not take this as a sign of solidarity and create a resolve based upon quicksand.

The Sky Team Pilots Association membership consists of pilots from AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Continental, Northwest and Delta.

Delta Air Lines can be accused of many things, but moving slowly through the bankruptcy process and re-aligning the company is not one of them. Delta is revamping its Salt Lake City operations and has added 21 flights since October.

With the announcement yesterday of its JFK expansion in New York, Delta’s restructuring is definitely moving forward. We all hope it is moving in the right direction.

Those two flights put Delta at the 100 mark for destinations out of Salt Lake City; and come June, you can add another seven non-stop flights to that list.
Those flights include: Bellingham, Washington, Des Moines, Iowa, Fargo, North Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Toronto, Ontario and Victora, British Columbia. The inaugural flights to Long Beach, California took off today. Flights to Mazatlan, Mexico start on Wednesday.
Despite the recent challenges Delta has faced with its restructuring plan, airline officials say the Salt Lake City hub is a bright spot, which is good news for Utah air travelers.
Bob Cortelyou, Delta Airlines: “In fact, just since October, Delta’s added or announced service to 21 new destinations out of Salt Lake City.”  via ksl.com

Delta Air Lines added a new hub at JFK to strengthen its international business traffic as it restructures in bankruptcy. The company will be adding flights to JFK throughout the northeast to feed its international traffic out of JFK International Airport.

This is a logical transition for Delta. They have had very little domestic traffic coming into JFK recently, so it has been difficult to feed their international flights. It also will put some pressure on JetBlue as that carrier is already experiencing losses with a brand new fleet and low labor costs.

They have the largest capacity (to Europe) but not a very good ability to get (passenger) feed from the rest of the country,” said Roger King, an analyst at CreditSights. “What they’re doing is trying to increase that, which is positive.”

A few of the planned routes overlap with destinations flown by low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways Corp., Delta Chief Operating Officer Jim Whitehurst said on a conference call.

“There is some overlap,” he said, “but that is certainly not why we did it.”

“This is really more about connectivity at JFK … It is more focused on us building a true hub here.” via Reuters