Originally Posted by Urbandrone

First off on have little faith in a southern base, but I sure like to fantasize about it. There are quite a few things pointing in that direction also. Yet there have been many a rumor mentioned on this site that proved to be unfounded rumors. That may be the reason the company has held off on an announcement.

If there is a base opening up there is good reason to hold off till this point. First we needed to get the CL65 type shortened footprint training program up and running. If we open a southern base, there will be a lot of people jumping ship from another regional that need a short training foot print to get them on line. Second is Delta needs to make sure they don't loose lift. If a regional airline finds out a new base opening they are going to jump ship, and if not to a Delta carrier moving the same people Delta will have a hole in it's spokes. Delta needed to place us in the position to hire these guys who will jump if we open a southern base, and be the place they want to come. I think they have almost accomplished all of this. Announcing before and the aircraft would be far out, training not in place, 9E not looking to be the best choice... I would say at this point Delta is very close to being in the position to announce a base and not loosing to many pilots in their southern feed system. It makes sense that they have held off and are in no rush to announce it, if that is the plane