Reductions in capacity, the effect on Delta, and staffing will have nothing to do with the judge's decision. Bankruptcy case law will, and how much is screws everybody over will not be a consideration.

It will not be a disaster for Delta. I have been through this kind of thing before. There will be guys in reservations that will route these passengers around just like I did in 2001 (and during the NWA strike in 1998). Delta has been preparing for something like this since the Comair strike in 2001. They have very carefully ensured that all routes have more than one connection carrier assigned to them and that no connection carrier dominates a hub. That was the lesson Delta learned in 2001 when Delta lost all regional feed to its second largest hub (at the time). People were re routed through other hubs and onto other airlines. This happens all the time. It was a pain for a month or so, but once the adjustments were made Delta rolled right along until the Comair strike was settled. In fact Delta had started to replace some of the flying with Mesa 1900s as a codeshare when the strike settled.

The industry and Delta will be fine if 9E liquidates. Delta will have to make some adjustments until the 9E flying can be covered, but it will not cause Delta a great deal of difficulty. Obviously they would prefer to keep 9E flying, but I guarantee they have a plan in place for a 9E shutdown.

That being said I will be surprised if the investors, 9E management, and Delta do not come up with some kind of deal to keep all parties happy and prevent armageddon for 9E. The investors and creditors want to get as much of their money out of this as they can, and I don't think they will choose a course that could lead to liquidation.