Take the numbers at face value and NWA is flying fewer RSM's with a lower load factor. Their customer base has been on the move out of cities like DTW, MSP and headed South. They have HORRIBLE relations with their employees (broken Mechanic's strike, telling FA's to look for their treasure in other people's garbage), they have an old fleet of outdated equipment, some of which will get parked as soon as the US military contracts get wrapped up. It takes more than ten years to hold what a Delta new hire can hold during indoc, in some pretty miserable bases. Put that together with much lower pay rates and a B scale, 400 still on furlough, age 65, and the DC-9 gauge flying going to Compass and Mesaba .... There is nothing in Egan, MN that I'm yearning to be a part of. Despite what ALPA says, Edgar Allen Poe could not write a more macabre tale for Delta than a NWA tie up.

Delta was a first choice amongst other choices. NWA would be a distant second to SkyWest, or Republic, if I were looking for a job. Just the rumor of NWA had me updating my logs, calling my corporate contacts and manufacturer's CPO's. If Delta and NWA get together; Somebody...start inflating the rat.