Originally Posted by
Ftrooppilot
Boomer: you may be right about the "money part" . Some managerial accountant has calculated all those costs and determined what (if any) savings are possible. They also have calculated and added the savings gained by eliminating redundant overhead costs experienced with multiple regional support. IMHO money savings are secondary to having Control of resources where Delta can unilaterally make decisions without 'negotiating" with other regional airlines. Trauma (new TA /Contract) once every four years is much more palatable then every 12-14 months when dealing with multiple regionals.
You may be right, but if so, it indicates that Delta is reversing a decade of choices. Going back to purchasing ASA and Comair in 1999, the Comair strike in 2001, and promising to never let one regional partner get that large. Well, except for SkyWest.
Now it looks like Delta is setting up Pinnacle to be the next ASA (sell it at a loss) and Skywest to be the next Comair (wake up one day and wonder why 60% of your regional lift is grounded).
Too bad Delta's experiments in "being thrifty" have caused so much damage to the families of employees at Big Sky, ACA/Indy, Skyway, Freedom, Comair, Mesaba, Colgan, Regional Elite, etc, etc...