How was the three year delay in the Contract cal mec fault?? You seriously think Smisek wanted to hand over a contract any earlier??? He had the Ual side on bankruptcy pay and the cal side with no work rules. Plus the two companies didn't need a single SLI until all the operations were combined. Had Delta not signed their deal we would probably still be negotiating. There was very little incentive up until recently for the company to need a single list, and a lot of incentive to save cash......