Scoop

Opus,
You make some good points. I think we are both on the same page, both against the merger. For the record I agree that the quick movement for FO's at DAL will not last forever but at what airline does it? DAL management will only go through with this deal if they keep the DAL name and headquarters in Atlanta. NW management apparantly does not feel this way about NW. IF NW prospects are so much better than Delta's then why is management willing to fold the whole company into Delta? Don't misunderstand me - I think DAL and NW are in very similar situations, some would give a slight edge to DAL, some to NW, but apparantly your management does not feel as strong about the Northwest name and MSP headquarters.
Also, I have heard that the NW MEC said they would agree to arbitration. If this is true why would they agree to that unless they thought they had something to gain. I think DAL pilots would be crazy to agree to arbitration because we have nothing to gain. We lose on DOH and we would also lose with relative senority. DAL is bringing more widebodies to the party and more narrowbodies and both pay a lot more than NW current rates. You guys may get raises as stand alone but so what - so will we. You guys have aircraft orders - so what, we can order aircraft also. You say all orders are booked until 2014. Maybe, maybe not, but there are other ways to get aircraft - we recently received 15 757's from American and are deep in negotiations with Air China for a bunch of MD-90's, along with our current orders I think we are looking pretty good. I would be thrilled if we start getting more aircraft in 2014 because we have no planned aircraft retirements, and orders for the next few years already in place. The bottom could drop out of the economy but that would affect all airlines. NW has a lot of potential upside but that can all change very quickly, DAL is currently doing what you guys are hoping for - growth. Also, for the record is the NW growing or shrinking its mainline fleet this year? You guys have a ton of retirements - but if you are parking a lot of airframes they could cancel each other out . And I wouldn't count on 100% of your pilots retiring at 60.
Scoop - also a product of the public shool system.