Originally Posted by
iaflyer
I though Alpha's post on target - we're in the middle (or end, hard to tell) of a large recession. ...
But look around - Delta is making lots of money, we just got a decent contract while others are fighting hard for less improvements than we got.
Also, Delta is consistently lowering our debt load - which (a) saves us money in interest every month and (b) allows us to get better rates when it comes time for new(er) airplanes. That helps us pilots in the long term.
Sort of right. ...
As measured by GDP, we were technically out of a recession in June 2009. However, incomes have not grown and unemployment has remained at 8% (which at some points in our history would have seemed fantastic). Many countries has been fighting with unemployment as high as 25% for years and I still can't find anyone to trim the damn bushes on my property. 2% growth is certainly not robust, but it is not a recession (by definition). Mostly likely, we are in the middle of a business cycle.
IMHO, Delta was still culling post merger capacity and when you merge the trend lines of f-NWA's market, we've continued the same pattern almost as though nothing happened.
Shrinking increases costs and decreases market relevance.
As has always been the case in my career ... 12 months from now should be a good deal.