Originally Posted by
Bartok
Help me out here Shy, because I'm sincerely trying to follow you.
You are referring to 9E's 140 200's, right?
Yes to the above.
And Delta never intended on collecting the $62 million, that the sale of XJ to Pinnacle and the ensuing merger was on purpose to push 9E into bankruptcy so they could get out of the 50 seat business faster?
I'd say that's fairly accurate. There is no more money to be made in the regional industry in terms of buying them and then selling them or IPOing them. XJ was offloaded because Delta didn't want to own regionals unless it could really screw them into lower cost first. XJ gone, and Compass gone too. Next, they wanted a CEO yes man and Menke wasn't it. They got their yes man and the ensuing BK and forced concessions worked. Then they "bought" 9E corp and will get out of 140 CRJ-200s leases much earlier than previously planned. At this stage, and I hate to say it, but Gumm is a shut down guy. If you are Delta, right now you use Endeavor to force the other DCI carriers (SkyWest, ASA/ExpressJet, GoJet, etc) to force cost reductions (which very likely will be labor cost reductions) and then proceed to shut Endeavor down.