I think it absolutely depends on whose metal. Delta metal should equal priority for delta employees and delta retirees. Endeavor employees and retirees can have priority on endeavor metal. Wholly owned or not, they’re still a contractor.

On a side note, sub-contracting has recently ballooned outside of the airline industry as well. If you ever get a chance to check out the google or Facebook campuses, you’ll find only a fraction of the workers there are actual google/Facebook employees. A surprisingly large number of them are contractors.