It's not that simple. Once the seniority list is complete and ops specs are combined, crews will start flying with each other. That's one of the major synergies the company gets. No more dual scheduling. So in your scenario, east and west crews fly together, with the east having their DOH. But when furloughs happen you start taking people out of the system via the Nic list or "former east list" and they start coming out of the system in random places, creating huge retraining expenses for the company trying to back fill those vacancies left by furloughed pilots. furloughing from the bottom up still creates training expense but not to the same degree. And its an expense they could hardly afford since in a furlough scenario the company is trying to conserve cash.
There is also no way to tell where the "shrinkage" would have really come from absent the merger. The merger changes the business plan based on new metrics throughout the system. If traffic increases for example, for passengers wanting to go from PHL to Hawaii, does the company route them via CLT or PHX? This decision effects where flying would go. What about other routes that only had the feed to fill an RJ? Now the additional traffic of the combined airline makes that same route more effective with an A320. Did that feed come from the east or the west? The economy will also affect those decisions. Presumably an increase in business travel would benefit the east coast corridor and the shuttle, while an increase in leisure travel would benefit the west. UA always benefits to a larger degree than any other airline when business fares increase, while suffering more when the economy turns down. Stage length also increases CASM which is bad for the east unless fares are stable or increasing. All of these factors play into the decision of where to allocate assets, and it is constantly changing, often from one season to the next.
When you look at the macro-econmics, it is not as simple as saying shrink the east furlough the east... shrink the west furlough the west. Same goes for growth. Who created the growth? That's why growth needs to be shared equally, or at least by a ratio decided by the arbitrator. (ie: 2/3 of the upgrades go east)
Finally, C&R's often go away in mergers. So the theory floated around here of an impending future merger negates any of these DOH with C&R ideas. The C&R's need to exist in the SLI itself in order to endure. Much the way Nicolau accounted for the top 517. A properly constructed list does not need many C&R's or fences.
No matter how you slice it, Nic is the middle ground and DOH is not. And debating the fairness of it infinitely here does not change the fact that the law will eventually set this mess straight. Not east or west. Outside of the courts, a representational election with east pilots who are tired of the stagnation and LOA93 siding with the west, and moving forward with significant contract improvements and a Nic inclusive list is the only other way.
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Yes,....and tell again please why you care??
NICDOA
NPJB
