Originally Posted by capncrunch

I think this is what you are referencing...

While we don't "own" the aircraft, a sale of the leases directly to Delta would be enough to trigger our Section 1 Scope language; that's already been discussed. Doesn't matter if the 717 leases are paid for by cash or by other assets, including delivery slots that are owned by Delta.

Originally Posted by sailingfun

I would not waste more then about 2 minutes wondering if the Airtran pilots would come with the aircraft. Delta management would not even consider the deal if that were the case. There are to many other much simpler options such as all the A319's sitting around. Aircraft can always be found. Management is trying to position the airline to be ready for the final round of consolidation. The last thing they would want to deal with is a semi merger and all that entails at the same time.

Originally Posted by gloopy

So once a company signs leases for particular planes, pilots are immortally attatched to those serial numbers until the full and complete exhaustion of said leases? I doubt it. Wishful thinking from someone that wants to sport bid across airlines for no good reason.

In the extremely, extremely unlikely event even a few pilots come with the planes, and there is no way a single one should, 99 year fences at a minimum is mandatory. Not to mention if that guy thinks 88 out of 700 planes over what would very likely be several years would trigger the fragmentation in this or even a previous contract, he's huffing some serious modeling glue.

So the AT scope was so weak that SWA could have operated the entire airline separtely and phased every one of them out pretty quickly, but the AT scope is so strong that their pilots own the seats to specific planes even if those planes are replaced completely with other planes?

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