Contract law is very grey. The one problem Delta will have is they knew Compass was closing before the pandemic, yet they never worked on a flow down agreement with another carrier. Then the pandemic hit. Instead of creating a new flow down, they decided to send out warn notices and then furlough notices. This is acting in bad faith.

The union called them out on the over utilization in violation of scope this fall. They know they are going to lose this case in arbitration. Now that they need the aircraft due to recovery, they have come up with a plan flow up/down with EDV. The questions Delta will have to answer is why now and not last year to create a flow down. Why did they send out furlough notices and not create a flow down agreement first.

There is also a problem with the 35 aircraft from Compass; they are over the contracted allowable MTOW in the PWA. Compass could operate the heavier aircraft on their certificate, but I don't think this is permitted per the PWA now that Compass does not exist.

The problem with the RLA and arbitration is they do favor the corporations due to commerce. I guess we will see.