You heard it here first: I was wrong. I really thought that Delta and Northwest would have announced a deal by now, but it appears that snags in getting their respective pilot groups to agree to a seniority merge in advance has backfired. Some may say that’s a good thing. As for me, I’m indifferent.
Having held a seniority number as an airline pilot, I feel like I’m pretty well in touch with what happened here. Seniority is everything to a pilot as it controls the planes you fly, the vacations you take and the days off you get. Merging seniority lists is tricky, and you’ve probably not gotten it right unless everyone is angry about how the list was merged!
Hard to say, but I wonder if Delta and Northwest management weren’t asking too much of their pilot groups?
