By 'in play' do you mean, open as a pilot base?

As soon as the NW/DL merger was announced, most of us said they would close MEM and CVG. With ATL and DTW, do they really need bases between those two?

Don't get me wrong, I wish all the small bases were still open, I've been commuting to ATL for 16 years now. I started in MIA, then went to BOS and at one time was based in CVG. All the smaller bases were much more fun, and better places to live, no doubt. But you know the bean counters are going to try to save money at every opportunity, closing CVG is probably their next move.

At one time there was a guy named David Watson who was in charge of pilot staffing. At a base meeting in MCO (when we had a base in MCO!) he was talking about reserves required. He said the average reserve pilot flew less than 35 hours per month. He said, "If it were up to me, there would only be ONE base, ATL, and every reserve would fly at least 70 hours, that's what we are paying them."

He's not in charge of pilot staffing any more, they moved him to the Flight Attendant side of the house!