and DL was in bankruptcy, so yeah pretty deep trouble.

so was CVG.

i think it was sailing (May have been another poster) listed all the bases DL had when they were hired in the mid 80s, and all but 1 (ATL of course) has since closed. and they have not actually opened a base that is still around since then (all other current bases acquired via a merger)

But this isn’t 20 or 40 years ago, the dynamic at play are definitely different when 4 airlines control 80% of the domestic market share.

who knows what the future holds, but I would be surprised if SLC closes unless delta is in deep trouble.

on the flip side and to make your point, we all saw how delta panicked during Covid and was planning on running a 7000 pilot “boutique airline”. So who knows they may in fact close every base but ATL over the next 40 years like they did over the last 40