Calm before the storm???

Life is good. There really isn't anything to complain about right now. Sure there's stuff on the horizon that is vexing, but for the time being, all is well. Being TDY'd (assigned to a base other than my domicile) for the month is working out great. The company foots the bill for a hotel room and pay's per diem for the whole month. When the schedule came out, originally I had 17 days off and 86 block hours. In addition to that, nearly every weekend off, plus I was home for Jack b-day for the first time since he was born!! I managed to pick up a few trips for other F.O's and brought my flight time up to 99:22 still with 14 days off. All the extra flying plus the per diem will make for a livable paycheck for once. We can use it. Next month I have to go back to sitting reserve, but its only for part of the month. I'll be heading to upgrade class at the end of the month, so that cuts into the days I have to work. Crew planning was nice enough to work with me on my May schedule and gave me Late Ready Reserve on the start of my rotations and A.M reserve on the last days. Pretty excellent considering I can stay at home all day on day one, catch the 18:00 flight and still arrive in time to start my late ready rsv. Then on the last day, rsv ends at 18:00, so I can catch the 18:50 flight home. Pretty commutable if you ask me.
So is this the calm before the storm? Good times now, turbulence ahead? Possibly, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy my time with my family, my time left in the right seat and having such a cool job.

Delta and Northwest merger

Things are gunna change. The airline industry as we know it is due for a drastic overhaul. Ever since the Wright Brothers launched on their historic flight over 100 years ago, people have been losing money in aviation. Making a profit in aviation is one of the hardest ways to make a buck. In fact, you stand a much better chance of losing money than ever making any. The best way to blow a million dollars is to invest in aviation. You could fill a book with all the defunct airlines that have come and gone over the years. This year will see a lot of additions to that book (it already has). I think 2008 is going to be the year of Airline Darwinism. By the end of the year, only the strong are going to survive.

Using the word "strong" in referring to airlines might not be the wisest word to use. Airlines have been bleeding money since day 1. Southwest is the only exception to the rule. Even they could be in trouble with the price of oil over $100 a barrel. I know they have some fantastic fuel hedges, but I'm not quite sure when they run out. When that happens, watch out, airlines might actually start charging what the seat is actually worth. Therein lies the problem. Airlines have never charged enough for their product. Ever since de-regulation the airlines have been in competition with eachother. The continually use predatory pricing to drive out the small carriers in hopes of driving off the competition so they may then raise prices and make a profit. In doing this, they offer their seats at a discount. So much of a discount they take a loss on operating the flight. What the airlines don't seem to understand is that there is a never ending supply of idiots that want to start up low cost airlines to compete with the majors. They can never raise their prices enough to make operating profitable. Hence, airlines are not exactly financially strong.

Delta and Northwest merging is going to shake up the industry. I think that there may be more mergers on the horizon. There will be a reduction in capacity, rise in fares and I'm predicting massive layoffs. I hope I'm wrong, for my future and the future of every other airline employee out there, but it does not look good. Delta is claiming that there will be no layoffs and no base closures, I dont buy it. No merger has ever gone smooth, this will not be an exception.

Captain

Well, its been 2 years since I've flown with my left hand, I wonder if my hand is going to remember how its done? It's official, I've made the list. The only list I've cared about for the past few months. The Vacancy List for Captains. I'm pretty excited to be on that list. It means a great deal to me professionally, personally and financially. I was awarded a CRJ-900 position for my company.

On a professional level, it is another big step in the career. I'll finally get around to getting my ATP license. (I've been putting it off for a long time because I'm too cheap to pay for my own checkride.) I'll be logging that all important turbine PIC time and I'll move one step closer to getting that "dream" job.

Personally, I've been looking forward to this for a while. It was difficult passing up on an instant upgrade at my last company. Looking back, it was the absolute best thing I could have possibly done. I talk to my friends that did decide to stay and take the upgrade and none of them are happy they stayed. I know I would have been miserable and that would have translated into my family being miserable as well.

Financially, this is a big, big step in the right direction. First year pay at a regional airline is an insult. Doing a little math the other day, I calculated my pay to be $12.82 an hour after taxes, health insurance, 401K Ect. When you factor in that reserve pilots rarely break guarentee of 75 hours, you can see that we are extremely underpaid. Making captain will nearly triple my take home pay.

Looks like its time to hit the books again. Class does not start for several weeks, but I plan on heading in to class fully prepared.