Scoop,
Please excuse my spelling, (I was educated in the public school system). For the record I am not for this merger. I don't want it either. I would much rather merge with CO or stand alone. I do not wish to be insulting but I just do not see the great future at DAL that you guys do. Before you start throwing mud let me explain. You had an anomalous ?sp purge of your seniority list, which probably won't happen at any other airline for the forseeable future if ever, I realize that you are backfilling with new hires and opportunities are great there right now for the junior pilots which, I believe, has caused an oversense of optimism. Let's be honest, histoically at every major, it generally takes ten years or so to become a widebody FO or narrowbody captain. What is happening at DAL is great, all for it, all I am saying is don't expect this to continue. With zero attrition things are going to plug up sooner than you think. As for ordering the airplanes away from NWA or anybody else, it doesn't work that way. Stand in line for the 787 or any airbus and you will not be seeing an airframe until 2014.
So, by not responding to the UAL factor I take you agree that DAL/UAL would not be in DAL's best interest?
I have read post after post about how NWA would be a liability to DAL. On our boards we are posting the opposite.
-we have less debt and more cash in the bank than DAL.
-we have more aircraft on order and 1000 plus pilots hitting the streets over the next five years and it continues at a steady rate until 2020. DAL zero until 2013.
-We do not want to go through the rest of our careers being thought of as the red headed step child.
DAL approached NWA not the other way around but as one reads the above post one would think that it is the NWA pilots are the ones coming hat in hand.