Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
DELTA AIRLINES has reached a tentative agreement with its pilots' union, which would enable it to establish a low-cost, short-haul, operation to compete with carriers such as ValuJet Airlines. The accord is contingent on the pilots signing a wider agreement designed to reduce Delta's overall costs, but is seen as an important step towards that goal.
What the carrier describes as a "...competitive, cost-effective, Delta operation targeted at selected markets" could be operational as early as the second quarter of 1996, initially using 18 of Delta's Boeing 737-200s. The operation would be "transparent to passengers", and not "an airline within an airline" like Shuttle by United, Delta says.
The agreement guarantees Delta cockpit costs and productivity on its 737-200 fleet "...which are competitive with others in low-cost markets". In return, the airline has committed to the "controlled growth" of its fleet through "deferred retirement, leases and other cost-effective aircraft business arrangements".
First, the pilots must sign a new contract providing the wage and work-rule concessions Delta is seeking under its Leadership 7.5 cost-reduction programme.
Flight deck crews, represented by the US Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), have so far refused to follow the airline's other, non-unionised, employee groups in agreeing to concessions.
Job security is at the root of ALPA's concerns, and Delta has agreed to recall all furloughed pilots by 1 July, 1997, and to restrict its Delta Connection regional affiliates to operating aircraft with 70 seats or fewer. An exception has been made to allow Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) to operate 88-seat British Aerospace 146 regional jets. ALPA had tried unsuccessfully to block ASA's 1 December introduction of a jet-powered service.
Source: Flight International
