Originally Posted by gooddeal

I'm sorry...your "Bros" in this deal is SkyWest and Compass, not actual Delta pilots. Maybe I don't understand who you're really in bed with in LAX but I don't see how this latest push on AS routes in the west, covered by E195s and CRJ900s is a benefit to mainline Delta pilots. If I you, I would be fine with a single 737 ATL-SEA, a single 737 MSP-SEA and 2 SLC-SEA 737s daily on another carrier than my own employer contracting hired help to grind down the books of another carrier.

Delta has a history of using DCI to build market share and then up gauging equipment to mainline. You are correct that there is no direct benefit to Delta pilots but there is the bottom line of the company and if these routes make money and then up gauge, there is a direct benefit. Time will tell. As far as the rest of the stuff about how we should be okay with a few flights to our hubs........well how does it feel now the shoe is on the other foot? Delta has finally decided to push back a little.

One thing the management in ATL doesn't understand about Alaskans (inhabitants, not airline employees) is that there isn't a large "business class base" over but brand loyalty there. Delta is as foreign as JAL offering daily "seasonal" service between Fairbanks and Seattle. Good luck making money on a flights who the local do not recognize as being there all season. The thinking and mentality is not congruent as east coast business capacity and shuttle system mentality is.

I think you are mistaken on the particular passenger Delta is looking for on the summer time SEA-FAI flight. I suspect Delta is not looking for the local business (although it would be nice to get some). I think they are looking at the rest of the country and going for the tourist to Alaska during the summer. I think Delta will do fine on this route for the summer time.

But all the talk about Delta being too big to fail has certainly been echoed by other large carriers in decades past. At one point, Delta was the niche carrier in the cotton states that didn't understand global operations compared to Pan Am and TWA. I'm not doubting that Delta has made great successes since coming out of bankruptcy and acquiring Northwest but pride comes before the fall and some of the threads in APC act as if Delta can't fail.