MB,

Oh, there's no secret involved. Delta is making the same play that NWA did to Mesaba in '05. Withhold payments that would exacerbate a bankruptcy filing in front of mainline agreements.

It's a win-win, again, for them. Dangle attractive terms for 50% +1 of the mainline guys and kick the JCBA of the regional back to the stone age before adding more capacity / seats with further scope relaxation.

You guys notice the extension on the submission of the 1113 filing yesterday?

As soon Delta was named DIP, any thought of this airline liquidating should have been out of mind. Does anybody really believe that any airline executive is going to negotiate terms at a loss as Trenary did in regard to Colgan's flying without a purpose? Most of the costing is fixed. Regardless of the fluidity of the non-fixed cost items, regional budgets are extraordinarily easy. (I have an MBA. I've done them countless times.......just without the inside info for 100% accuracy.)

These decisions are orchestrated a couple years in advance yet only seem to be "new" to most that don't follow closely. (Not to put anyone down but the 10k filings, understanding the non-GAAP accounting costing, investments with corporate bonds, etc. is not everyone's cup of tea....and understandably so.)