Originally Posted by Wasatch Phantom

Whoa there!

Why do you think "Delta will need us more than we need them"?
The Edmund Burke quote seems apropos: "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it".

Look at the industry, and look at how events have unfolded over the past several years. There's a race to the bottom amongst the regional carriers as the mainline airlines are whipsawing one regional against another. The winner being the one willing to fly for less.

SKYW Inc. negotiated a sweetheart deal with Jerry Grinstein (Delta's CEO during bankruptcy) regarding the purchase from DAL of ASA. But there is a reset coming in 2015 and basically (as another poster pointed out) SKYW can't be any more expensive then the second lowest or they can be replaced.

That's why, from a purely business perspective, Delta's purchase of Pinnacle and the corresponding pay cuts/concessions from the Pinnacle pilots was a stroke of genius. It puts tremendous pressure on SKYW to reduce their costs...or get replaced. I strongly suspect one cost they will aggressively try to cut will be pilot compensation.

Do you really think SKYW could go it alone and compete head to head with DAL, AMR, UAL, etc? If you do, I suggest you Google Independence Air. I'll save you the trouble - here's a link to a Wikipedia article:
Independence Air - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia