Originally Posted by sailingfun

Carl, Excepting that 35 to 38 year old inefficient aircraft are going to be parked does not portray NWA in a bad light. Its a simply reality. I have listened in two lounge briefs where management has discussed the aircraft. They are history. There will not be a DC-9 in the fleet within 36 months of the merger. Aircraft get retired all the time. Its the nature of the beast. Before the Delta/NWA merger was even announced you guys were phasing them out fast. You had 160 less then 3 years ago. I think you have about 80 today and you are parking a couple each month. These are the oldest most fuel inefficient aircraft at any major airline. There is going to be a major domestic pull down of flying by all US airlines. Greater then what is already been put out. Delta had DC-9's that they retired in the early 90's because of maintenance costs and fuel burn. They just retired 54 737-200's all built after 1983 for the same reason. The 737's were replaced with E-170's. My point is that we need to focus on that not happening with the nines and making sure the replacement flying is recaptured by the mainline. The nines are gone. They were going when you were a standalone airline and they are going with the merger. Who gets the replacement flying is the question.