Even the 1400+ on furlough? I think they would beg to differ. Tilton wasn't budging his gameplan and had his thumb on the side of the road looking to sell from day one.

The fact that I am a 2005 hire with 17 years in this industry, able to hold 75 Captain ( and currently fly as a 73 CA) and retire in the single digits at pre-merger CAL under age 65 speaks volumes about my career expectations. That's a larger valuation than aircraft hull size as capacity can come and go based on circumstance...seniority lists have an order and finality to them based on time served.

It's like the old joke, how do you become a millionaire in the aviation industry...start with a billion dollars. ual did not change its business model or readjust itself after 9/11...it stubbornly refused to budge and defied the industry to turn itself back to the days of hub/spoke...domestic widebody flying.

Having a certain number of left over aging fleet types from a better (pre- 2000 era) for the remaining cadre of pilots to choose with (very low block hour averages, mind you, compared to the more productive, efficient CAL side) doesn't speak well to future variety on a competitve global market scale. Hence the need for ual to find a merger partner and find one fast after the DAL/NW. Those pilots were never coming back with ual's old game plan and it can also be shown that more would follow on its old pre-merger trajectory. Were not even talking about the issue of the aging, outdated, non-ETOPS fleet.

The numbers do not lie