Misc - HL 319 (5)

2234 Pilots sign up for early-outs. Because of federal aid, furloughs cannot begin until Oct 1^st, but very likely a number will be “re-assigned” at that time.  The early number of pilot reductions was down to 10,000.  That is moving from 14.5K to 10K and who knows if that will be the correct re-sizing. Here below is an AJC article from Kelly explaining where they are at.  Interesting the company “assesses” the request to determine if they will grant the leave.  Also interestingly enough the pilots have a “reconsider” time when they can withdraw their request.  All in all Delta seems to be in a better place over AA and UAL who are both planning drastic cut backs.

More than 2,000 Delta pilots sign up for early retirement

ATLANTA AIRPORT BLOG| July 20, 2020

By Kelly Yamanouchi, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More than 2,000 pilots at Delta Air Lines have applied to take early retirement offers, in addition to thousands of other employees taking buyouts and early retirements as the company shrinks its workforce.

Atlanta-based Delta announced last week that more than 17,000 employees had opted for buyouts or early retirement packages, part of an effort to cut costs due to the “staggering impact” of the coronavirus pandemic that has sharply curtailed air travel.

In addition, more than 2,230 pilots have signed up for the voluntary early retirement program, according to the Air Line Pilots Association union at Delta.

“This is meaningful progress as we look to mitigate furloughs and our teams are hard at work to determine next steps and evaluate how the pilot early retirement may affect Delta’s overall pilot staffing outlook,” the airline said in a written statement.

Delta has about 90,000 employees, including roughly 14,000 pilots.

Pilots who qualify for early retirement and take the package will get 58 hours of pay per month for 36 months or until age 65, whichever comes earlier. They also qualify for certain medical and travel benefits. Pilots who sign up will retire starting Sept. 1.

Last month, Delta warned pilots of potential furloughs.

While the window was open to sign up for the offer, Delta’s senior vice president of flight operations, John Laughter, told pilots in a memo that “we face a long, choppy recovery and constantly changing road ahead.”

In the memo last Friday, Laughter pushed a management proposal to reduce pilots’ guaranteed pay by 15% for one year, in return for a guarantee of no pilot furloughs for a year.

“Our approach is to spread the work of a smaller airline among all our pilots to preserve all jobs,” Laughter wrote. “But we cannot do it only with voluntary options” such as early retirements and paid leaves.

In response, the pilots union said it is in active negotiations with the company and that “we need to finish addressing implementing all voluntary partially paid leave variations before discussing any involuntary options with Delta.”

Earlier this year the pilots union rejected management’s push for a proposed 20% cut in guaranteed pilot pay, while proposing other options. The airline has cut pay for many of its other employees, who are not unionized, by 25%.

The pilots union in March struck a deal to offer pilots time off at reduced pay — but subsequently Delta management said it no longer wanted to offer paid leave to pilots because tens of thousands of its other employees had signed up for unpaid leave.

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Delta Air Lines Slashes August Schedule After Posting $5.7B Net Loss

Ben Goldstein July 14, 2020

Credit: Joe Pries

Delta Air Lines halved its planned growth rate for August, citing new weakness in forward bookings, after posting a $5.7 billion net loss in the 2020 second quarter (Q2).

Atlanta-based Delta now plans to add just 500 daily departures in August, compared to 1,000 previously. 

“We were expecting a choppy recovery, and the past few weeks have shown that to be true,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told analysts on the company’s Q2 earnings call July 14. “We’ve seen demand growth flatten recently with the rise in COVID-19 cases. We are watching trends closely and have pared back our capacity plans for August.” 

Other U.S. carriers, including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines, are also slowing their pace of growth in August, as surging novel coronavirus infections and a proliferation of new travel restrictions dampen the public’s appetite for leisure travel. Corporate travel, which typically provides half of Delta’s total revenues, “has not yet returned in any meaningful way,” Bastian noted.

“We remain cautious on the pace of recovery through the balance of the year. Additionally, there isn’t a clear time line when international borders will open back up for U.S. travelers,” Bastian said. “It’s against that uncertain backdrop that we are taking the industry’s most conservative approach to capacity.”

Delta’s $5.7 billion net loss offered a grim preview of what is expected to be the worst airline earnings season ever, with Credit Suisse analyst Jose Caiado expecting total industry revenues to be down 90% from 2019 

Despite the weakening demand picture, Delta is still targeting breakeven cash burn by year-end, down from $27 million per day currently and $50 million per day in May. The company has cut its operating costs in half since the pandemic began, and with $15.7 billion in liquidity, has enough cash on hand to sustain itself for over a year at present demand levels. 

Delta plans to retire its 10-aircraft Boeing 737-700 fleet, while shedding additional portions of its 767-300ER and A320 fleets in 2020. The carrier has already retired more than 100 planes since April, including its entire 777, MD-88 and MD-90 fleets.

“We have the most flexible fleet in the U.S. and are pulling forward these and additional fleet simplification initiatives, which we believe will provide a lasting benefit to our cost structure,” Bastian said.

The Delta chief reported that 17,000 of the company’s 90,000-strong pre-pandemic workforce have voluntarily decided to exit, an “optimistic” figure that he said could “minimize, if not eliminate, the need for involuntary furloughs.” Major airlines are widely expected to cut payrolls when the CARES Act’s prohibition on layoffs expires Oct. 1. 

“The difficult reality of resizing the airline is that we need a smaller workforce until we see demand return,” Bastian said. “We are hopeful that the voluntary programs can accomplish the vast majority of headcount changes we need.”

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Here below I publish an email from Gerald Smith who got a letter what he “thinks” may be a scam on Delta Letterhead claiming he has unclaimed property.  We informed Gerry to tread with caution and to get back with us if indeed he finds a resolution. 

Have any other PCN members received such a letter?  Please share!

From: Gerald B Smith
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 4:35 PM
To: mark.pcndir@gmail.com
Subject: Delta Letter

Mark,

 I received a letter on Delta letterhead that baffles me. I’ve tried and tried to reach someone at Delta ESC (1-800-693-3582), but cannot get through. I finally sent the following email to ESC.Delta, but no response:

I have been trying forever to contact you by phone, but apparently the COVID bottleneck rides again.

I was a Delta pilot for 32 years and retired 1/1/97.

I just received a letter dated July 13, 2020, purportedly from Delta, that I believe might be a scam.
The subject is “Vendor Checks” and indicates that it is from HOLDING COMPANY: DELTA AIR LINES, NUMBER: 700303417, DATE: 01/27/2017, AMOUNT: 730.80.. The letter asks me to verify that I am entitled to the property, sign and date, then return to Unclaimed Property Processing, C/O Delta Air Lines, Inc, 13770 Noel Road, P O Box 802889, Dallas, TX 75380-0192. No phone number is included.

The letter further states that “If no response is received by August 14, 2020, the amount indicated will be handled as unclaimed property . . .”

I have no clue what this is about. Please help.

Thanks,
Gerald B Smith
005065900

 Have you heard of any of these letters concerning unclaimed property? Do you have a phone number that might work?

Thanks for the help.

 Gerald (Jerry) B Smith

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Mark,

Jim Ortman contacted me today with a comment about your latest PCN post and mentioned the link to the Delta seniority list.  I tried to open it up, but it requires a password, which I either have forgotten or didn’t ever have.  I get your post every month, but just click on the link in the email to open it up - no PW required. So I went to the main PCN website and re-registered, thinking it would take me to a place where I could get a password registered. - no joy there.  Is there a link somewhere that would allow me to change/set my password?

Thanks, I appreciate your posts and trying to stay connected. 

Scott Hersha

Editor: Reminder to all PCN members that on our website we maintain a couple of pages that are “semi-private” and require a password to open. 

THE GROUP PCN PASSWORD for these pages is:   pcnpilot

Two password protected PCN pages:

1.    Oldest Living Pilots: http://pcn.homestead.com/Archived_Oldest_Liv_02.html

2.    And Seniority and Crew Hotels  Page:  http://pcn.homestead.com/Seniority.html

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU USE THE PCN WEBSITE AND FIND A BROKEN LINK OR A PAGE THAT NEEDS UPDATING…….Thank you!

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Pilot Survivor Resources Page revised.

From: Travis Foster
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2020 4:46 PM
To: misc.pcn@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Check out DLSurv

Thanks for providing this survivor info, as well as all the other info &  services on the PCN. It has been very helpful to a many widows who were at a loss as to what do when their lives turned upside down. I have been surprised to find so many widows (and wives) did not know or had forgotten about Survivor Benefits or how to contact who. The DDPSA also does a great job along this line. 

In 2020, I started working on Reunion parties for Delta pilots & Flt Atts that had been based in MSY at some point in their careers. That phone list soon turned into an email list as it quickly grew into a way to pass along items of common interest to the MSY group.  I have about 170 pilots and widows plus another 70 Flt Atts.

Dave Roberts was already doing this for all of the Delta pilots, so he became my main source of info. Now it is you and Carol. If I hear of a death, I fwd it to her and she immediately locates the obit and other items about the individual. I am not as computer savvy as I should be or as she is. I also appreciate your financial & tax info.

I moved to State College, PA in 2008 for the impending birth of my twin Granddaughters. We love it here, but I miss seeing all of my old MSY friends.

Travis Foster

thfoster6@aol.com

Editor: Travis, I looked and looked for the file that I had for those “other misc phone numbers for retirees” and I could not find it so I erased that link altogether.  If and when I can build another helpful list I will put it back up at that time.  Thanks for the help. Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Full post disclaimer in left column. PCN Home Page is located at: http://pcn.homestead.com/home01.html