Originally Posted by alfaromeo

That is absolutely not true. Delta did not have any trouble getting financing before our deal. United has been able to do financing since exiting bankruptcy even with no contracts at all being finished, AMR is still getting financing for their new 737's and 777's even though they are in bankruptcy and their labor situation is chaotic at best.

New aircraft are in high demand and thus make good collateral. If someone doesn't pay, you simply fly the jet over to the next customer. This whole financing thing has been floated around as some rumor for months and months and it is horse hockey. Delta's credit rating has improved since the merger and the last upgrade was before our deal was done. Delta had excellent access to credit with or without this deal.

The timing was about the availability of this fleet of aircraft (717's) and the need to either stick a lot of money into engine maintenance on 50 seaters or get busy replacing them. It was all about the refleeting and had nothing to do with access to capital.