Originally Posted by sailingfun

They actually stated on many occasions that the very survival of the airline hinged on getting down to 3 fleet types however that was for the current Delta system. They crunched the numbers and felt the combined NW/Delta network had the potential to produce far more revenue than fleet simplification and the smaller Delta footprint. It seems they made the correct decision and they have not totally abandoned fleet simplification as witnessed by the last two years. It’s very difficult to attempt any fleet reductions in times of rapid growth. It’s much simpler in the tough times. Times were very tough during their 3 fleet type attempt.