Originally Posted by
uaav8r
Look at the city pairs that our 737's used to serve. Most are served by 70 seat RJ's now. Case in point...DFW, where I've been commuting from for over 15 years. One UA A320/day and one CO 737/day and FIVE 70 seat RJ's. Used to be eight 737's/320's a day. Our 737's were indeed parked to "rightsize" no doubt. But, RJ's DID replace the 737s at UAL...PERIOD.
There are many more examples of this, not just DFW. So I find your conclusion that 70 seaters didn't lead to the sale of the UAl 737's. They were older than the airbuses, more costly to operate than the RJ's, so they went.
As far as right sizing for the merger, I don't know. It seems that Tilton wanted to merge with anyone, even US Air. So I guess, if there was right sizing, it was for that merger.
CAL employees did not want a merger, we seemed to be doing just fine on our own. Smisek's ego and the CAL's greedy BOD saw the dollar signs and Tilton just wanted his check and get out.
If lowering costs by moving flying to RJ's, putting UAL pilots on the street and selling Older 737's to put a fresh coat of lipstick on UAL is right sizing for a merger, then I guess I would agree with you.
Somehow, I don't think we will ever see this the same way, we're just on different sides of the same fence.