Originally Posted by
forgot to bid
Logic would have it that considering they didnt exist, no 1998 person with a hire date that is on our list would have a JBU pilot in front of them. Relativity would be fine below that point.
I think the same argument holds for WN/FL... no WN pilot hired before the type when FL was started should have a single FL pilot in front of them.
DAL/HAL I believe Bloch would handle like the recent Pinnacle/Mesaba/Colgan list. The 767 CA slots would be integrated stovepipe method with us, 767 FO, then 717 CA integrated in the DC-9 stove pipe and 717 FO the same.
A merger in the next 3-5 years is almost certainly coming, but JBLU is not even a possibility. We already cover just about everything they do and have the eastern half of the US, carribean and Latin America suitcased. The merger coming will be something that improves our west coast and Pacific route structure. Organic growth out there would be waaaaayyy too expensive. It is a low yield market with AA, UAL, LUV, and AS all firmly entrenched and saturating the region. A merger is the only way to improve our presence beyond code share without some major changes to our fleet. A West Coast push is coming in 2013/2014 when the Big New York projects are complete and the debt has been reduced to an acceptable level. We are already buying up advertising rights to sporting venues and teams in LA and we have the contract for the Angels' Charter.
AS would be very expensive, and we really only need about 2/3 of their flying. Mostly just their up and down the coast stuff. We have all their Hawaii and most of their transcon routes already covered. That said, we have been slowly but deliberately aligning our operations at SEA and LAX. AS would be great for the company (pilot value would depend on the SLI) if the right set of circumstances present themselves...for now, I think DAL is happy with a very tight code share. Chance of merger 50%
HA is just about a no brainer. They could be bought for relatively little cost, provide more access to the Asian markets and would make us the undisputed king of the Hawaii market from Central Asia to the East Coast. This would give us the ability to control capacity in a market that has been notoriously saturated and low yielding...a marriage of DAL/HA could change that. They also bring the 717 on property and that alone is a great incentive to pursue an even larger fleet to make them more economical. The 717 is the perfect jet for entry into competetive West Coast Markets and could make organic growth there possible. It is highly effecient on short routes and is low capacity but much roomier than an RJ. As for SLI...they have 533 pilots who are mostly living and based in HNL with a mere handful in SEA. A reasonable SLI could be worked out quickly. I really don't see many of them suddenly commuting 2600 miles to fly the 73n in LAX or 4200 miles to take anyones 7er seat in ATL. Chance of HA merger in 3-5 yrs...75%