The contract would also allow the Atlanta-based airline to add more 76-seat regional jets, although “this access can only occur if Delta first acquires small narrow-body jets flown by Delta mainline pilots,” while also getting rid of more 50-seat aircraft flown by regional partners, O’Malley said. Pilots prize jobs on main jet fleets because it means better pay and benefits over the long term.
Source:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ses-union-says
Pilots also have a very noice pay raise in the contract. The expansion of the fleet would mean a chunk of senior FOs would move to the Captain's seat.
The ALPA public press release is here:
http://dal.alpa.org/DesktopModules/B...d=3&TabId=1047
This also puts down any rumors of the larger regional jets.
And just to throw some gas on the fire, it's quite obvious that the work groups with collective representation do substantially better than the other groups. I doubt any other labor group is going to see a 20% pay improvement over 2 years like the pilots.