I only wish the NW employees well. (best job I ever had)

I've been around plenty. I've "hoped" before...I've tried to keep the faith when reps said "we don't think they'll do XXX" but sometimes you just have to sit back and face reality.

They haven't modernized the fleet in years. Countless carries have--KLM, AF, Cargolux, Atlas, Polar, Kalitta, World, just to name a few--all fly 400s.

They are shrinking the fleet in the face of overwhelming evidence that there was money to be made in freight.

The ding-dong in charge of a new freighter (I forget his name) said the pax-conversion was "too heavy" to make it a profitable replacement.

That's laughable. It's executive-speak for we're not growing that part of the business.

Again, I wish all NW employees the best, but I wouldn't hold out hope that your management is seriously entertaining the idea of growing the business, at any level. Steenland's old lady has probably already spent his merger money three or four times over.

I think most of the lower third of the NW seniority list would be better served thinking about their own exit strategy than wondering whether the cargo division is going to be around in the future.