Delta Airlines Pilot Scope

Synopsis of Delta Airlines Pilot Scope – Recently Ratified

For our purposes in discussing Regional Code-Share  and to have consistency with the contract the following two definitions are the most important:

“Category A operation” is a flight operation operated as a Delta Connection carrier. The best example of this is a “fee for departure” operation (no matter the passenger loads the regional gets paid).

“Category C operation” refers under practical circumstances, to any sort of Pro-Rate agreement where a carrier operates as a Delta Connection operation, but where the flying may be “at risk” (meaning, if you don’t carry anyone you make very little money).

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Exemptions to the following Scope for Delta Airlines Pilots–

• 37 seat turbo-props that are certified for less than 37,000 lbs.
• Delta Private Jets with operations less than 19 seats.
• Chautauqua and Shuttle America are not required to comply with the following limitation –  Having aircraft at affiliates(other parts of the company) that are beyond the permitted aircraft at Delta.
• 36 EMB 175 Jets, specifically the ones at Compass (although these are included in total counts)

note- the E175 exception was required because of the 86,000 lb max gross scope limit, these are grandfathered in.

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Baseline Scope- Contract signed but no “triggers” tripped.

1. Unrestricted number of 50 seat aircraft.
2. Allowed to have up to 255 aircraft in the 51-76 seat range.
3. Aircraft must be certified below 86,000 lb max gross limit. (except for the 36 compass EMB 175’s)
4. 120 of those aircraft can be 71-76 seat aircraft without restriction.
5. To go beyond 120 and up to 153 71-76 seat aircraft their must be 440 mainline aircraft plus whatever was brought over with Northwest Airlines.

Note:  If the 440 + NWA number of aircraft is active then Delta can increase the number of 71-76 seat aircraft up to 153 by a factor of 3 for every additional mainline aircraft on the property. In other words, if Delta has the 440 + NWA (number of aircraft at time of merge) plus an additional 11 mainline aircraft they are allowed to operate up to 153 (71-76) seat regional aircraft.

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(TRIGGER) Delta establishes a fleet of new Small Narrow body Jets (could be 717’s, new A319’s, etc)

1. The limit on the number of 71-76 seat aircraft now goes up beyond 153 to 223 with some specific conditions.

Conditions-

• The number of 51-70 seat regional aircraft becomes limited to 102 aircraft.
• The number of 71-76 seat aircraft goes up by 1 aircraft for every 1.25 new mainline small narrow body aircraft. For every 4 additional 71-76 aircraft mainline must see an increase of 5 mainline small narrow body aircraft.
• The number of 71-76 seat aircraft can go up to 223, allowing the number of 51-76 seat aircraft to increase to 325 aircraft.

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(TRIGGER) January 1st, 2014 AND Delta has more than 153 (71-76) seat regional aircraft. This trigger re-applies every January 1st indefinitely.

 

1. Delta must begin its 50 seat reduction plan, based upon the number of 71-76 aircraft on the property.

For the first 10 aircraft above 153 (71-76) seat aircraft	Delta must reduce by 27 (50) seat aircraft.
For the next 10 (71-76) aircraft above 163	Delta must reduce by an additional 28 (50) seat aircraft.
For the next 10 (71-76) aircraft above 173	Delta must reduce by an additional 29 (50) seat aircraft.
For the next 10 (71-76) aircraft above 183	Delta must reduce by an additional 30 (50) seat aircraft.
For the next 20 (71-76) aircraft above 193	Delta must reduce by an additional 62 (50) seat aircraft.
For the next 10 (71-76) aircraft above 213	Delta must reduce by an additional 46 (50) seat aircraft.

Once the maximum number of 71-76 seat regional aircraft is reached (223) the maximum limit of 50 seat regional jets will have been capped down to 125.

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Block hour Restrictions now go into effect, depending upon how many 71-76 regional jets are in service.

 

Between 154-163 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 11 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.
Between 164-173 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 12.5 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.
Between 174-183 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 13 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.
Between 184-193 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 13.5 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.
Between 194-203 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 14 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.
Between 204-213 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 14.7 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.
Between 214-223 large regional jets	Delta Mainline must fly 15.6 hours of block	for every 10 hours of Regional block.

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Summary-

What does this mean? It can safely be assumed, that Delta is purchasing a new small Narrow body fleet(Boeing 717’s from SouthWest). According to this websites Delta Connection numbers they are close to the current limit of 153 71-76 seat aircraft.

If Delta steps over the 153 (71-76) seat regional threshold we could see Delta Airlines do the following:

• An increase in the number of 51-76 seat aircraft up to 325. This would be an increase of 70 large regional aircraft.
• A reduction in the number of 50 seat aircraft by a little over 200 aircraft.
• A new hard-cap for Delta of (125 50 seat aircraft) + the 325 (51-76) seat aircraft bringing the Total to 450 Regional Aircraft. This only would occur if Delta maxed out their (71-76) seat scope at 223 aircraft.

If Delta only made it to 154 (71-76) regional aircraft the hard-cap would be 256 (51-76) seat aircraft plus the current 50 seat fleet of 306 (according to our older numbers) minus 2.7 aircraft. The 256 comes from the fact the growth beyond the combined (51-76) seat limits must be from the (71-76) seat aircraft. The hard-cap will swing somewhere between 560 and 450 Regional Aircraft. According to this sites estimates Delta has approx. 557 Regional Aircraft.

Delta should see a reduction of 110 Regional Aircraft over the next few years. With a reduction of almost 2 (50) seat aircraft for every 1 (76) seat aircraft add, that’s a reduction 2,640 seats. According to this sites numbers that’s approximately 8% less Regional seat capacity that before.