Not necessarily. If you buy parts of an airline that are blow their fragmentation threshold, their contract provisions do not come in effect. As a result, taking the employees is optional.

If you bought airplanes from an airline, it depends on how the deal is structured and if the loss would cause furloughs. Again, it is does not trigger fragmentation language, employees do not necessarily need to come with. Airplanes can also be returned to the leasing company and then washed though there.

The only scenario where you would definitely see employees is if DAL chose to take part of say AMR that equated to more than their fragmentation language, or you bought someone like ALK, HAA or B6 in whole. I do not see the latter coming before the fate of AMR is known, not just assumed.

As for a my statement about culture, the melding of cultures costs money, and time. It also causes delays in getting to the efficiencies that brought about the transaction. I am sure at some point we will take employees, but I doubt it is DAL's first choice.