Originally Posted by
fatsopilot
Maybe someone in Delta got smart and figured out that having 8 different companies flying their passengers around providing subpar service is more expensive than actually just flying the airplanes with their own staff. The redundancy in mechanics, management, scheduling, HR and all the other departments means that Delta is paying much more than they would have to if they staffed the plans themselves. Delta is, after all, an airline - in business to fly passengers around in airplanes. I wonder how big of a team Delta has to have internally just to deal with the DCI carriers.
Remove Pinnacle, insert Comair and the same thing was being said 10 years ago. Look at Delta's history, look at the history of this management team. The best thing for Pinnacle and its employees is to get sold or spun off as quickly as possible to get away from Delta ownership. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Delta has a large portfolio of carriers to drive costs down. It works and has made millions for Mother Delta while devastating the regional industry. They're not about to ditch a concept that has made them so much money and worked so well for their bottom line.
Delta needed to stabilize Pinnacle because they could not replace its feed overnight. Now that PCL is stabilized, either it gets sold or pieced out.