Aeroflot: No Soviet Planes by 2010

According to Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, Aeroflot's board of directors met on the 31st of January and decided that the airline will retire its Soviet-built aircraft by 2010. This means that the Tu-134 and Tu-154 will have to leave soon. Those will all be replaced by Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Airbus A320s, and Sukhoi's Russian Regional Jet (RRJ).

At the same time, however, the airline will take delivery of more Il-96s. The article mentioned that Il-96s will go too, but I don't think that's the case - they're new, and not Soviet-built.

Personally, I think that this is a big loss. From an economical standpoint it makes sense, since those Soviet planes are gas guzzlers and overall inefficient. But I have yet to fly on one and I do believe that my time's running out.

(By the way, if anyone can correct the info regarding the Il-96, that'd be great.)

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Delta Pilots: We Strike If No Contract

I realize it's been a while since my last post. Actually, over a month. I've been very busy with things and I hope that those of you who actually read this haven't forgotten this site.

In the past month, the fallout of Indy Air has led to higher ticket prices in some areas. But the big story is that United Airlines left bankruptcy on the first of the month. So they're free from the shackles of Chapter 11. We'll see how they do.

Big story today is, Delta pilots said they would walk out if the company rejected their new contract. Lee Moak, chairman of the union that represents Delta's pilots, said: "If our contract is rejected, we will strike." Can't put it more bluntly than that.

The company wants to impose $325 million in cuts, but the union will only settle for $115. Moak has instructed the opening of a strike center, too.

But Delta's pilots have threatened this before, so are they really serious this time? My guess: no. Both sides - union and management - have too much to lose. If they went on strike, Delta's CEO had said that the company would liquidate immediately.

That said, if they do strike, it would be a lot like Eastern Airlines in 1989: management imposed terms, union said no, pilots went on strike, Eastern went belly-up.

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