Originally Posted by alfaromeo

Before this rumor spins out of control, you should go back and listen to what he said again. He was pointing out that Delta, and the industry, are different than in the past and should be thought of as reliable long term investments and not momentum trades.

Someone asked him what Delta would do if there was a sharp economic downturn like 2008. He said they have many mitigation strategies including:

• Setting down aircraft that are fully depreciated and fully paid off, like the MD-88's
• Using the 40% of part time employees less
• Bringing back heavy maintenance (currently outsourced) back in house
• Turning of the pilot hiring spigot and letting attrition bring down pilot numbers

His point was that the company is set up to weather the storms that routinely hit the airline industry. This is NOT the plan moving forward. This is the QRH response to "ECONOMIC MELTDOWN - WIDESPREAD". Delta's stated plan was to grow domestic capacity while getting rid of many additional regional jets. This means more mainline domestic growth and they cannot set down the MD-88's and complete this plan.