Right now, there are 1,000 MD-88 crews. They want 750 by fall of 2018 and they want to close MSP as an 88 base. My guess is 250 captains displacements in MSP. Most of those are pretty senior. I doubt they would commute to ATL to fly the same plane. If they are going to commute, they might as well commute to a better paying plane.

The real question is what other A positions will be posted. If they add 250 A positions in MSP, the damage will be contained. If they spread the new A positions over other bases then it gets complicated.