Originally Posted by
Lighteningspeed
That's a very good point. I am just wondering if the major growth in the international sector for both the NWA and Delta will more than make up for any attrition due to retiring of DC9s and other aging and no longer economical aircraft at both DAL and NWA.
I am also little concerned with what may be the strategy of NWA/DAL for their domestic routes. I don't want to see more relegation of mainline flying to bigger and bigger RJs at the regional level. Don't want to be stuck at a regional even if it is one of the better ones flying newer aircraft.
NWA isn't retiring all the DC9s! The plan is to go down to 68 by the end of the year. The hiring going on right now, already has that in account. Sure the DC9s will be retired at some point but NWA is trying to use the 9's until Boeing comes out with its new super efficient 737 replacement.
As you know everything is this industry is subject to change. The good thing is that NWA has a decent scope that caps the number of Regional aircraft until the Mainline fleet grows in NET aircraft, not replacement.
We shall see....
