Alpha,

I agree with you in many regards even if you are an arrogant p#%k.

The economy has and always will drive this business. No one expected instant hiring. ALPA and the Co, created that expectation and is now backing away from it. The rub is the economy was deliberately down played while all the rosy prognostications were being made. The fact that it is now not so rosy is exactly what many were concerned with which were the lies you had to counter in the hiring T&G?

Rumor is the 717 could be delayed due to AD compliance and SWA having "difficulty" getting parts (?), which is directly tied to hiring, we are now dropping much point to point in Europe in favor of the old NWA/KLM model, which will result in less net traffic for everyone, and again delay hiring (which of course was completely dismissed during the SLI/JCBA discussion)

I have a feeling if the candid conversations about the effect of the economy had gotten as much airtime as it is now, the TA passage might have been more questionable, which is of course why it didn't.

The only lack of critical thinking I see Alpha is an institutional arrogance that thinks they are the only ones with the correct answers. I find it highly ironic you are now defending the TA with many of the same arguements made against the TA at the time. I'm used to TA's falling short, but usually not before much of it is even implemented.

Back to my belly button, and for all our sakes hoping to be proven wrong in the long run.