Hmm, good question. As someone else said, if you were to ask a Delta pilot and a Northwest pilot what they think is fair you would get two different answers. I have an old Air Force buddy who is at NW. We have talked about it and we have way different ideas of what is fair.

That said, here goes. First I don't believe in DOH. I don't think it should be a factor in any merger, be it DL/NW or DL/JB. I think DL and NW are fairly similar companies. NW has bigger widebodies, we have more of them. NW has more short term retirements, we have more long term retirements. I think the balance of aircraft growth vs aircraft retirements is fairly close.

I think relative position is a good starting point with some adjustments from there. Keep in mind, I don't consider relative position to be a percentage. To me relative position means senior widebody captain on the NW list ends up in roughly the same position as a senior widebody captain on the DL list. I am a narrowbody captain who can hold the 767 and would be junior on the ER. I would expect to be on the combined list where my number could still hold the same thing. That should put me pretty close to NW pilots who arenarrow body captains that can hold the 757, and would maybe be a very junior widebody captain.

There will be problems created because you have a bunch of senior pilots who are former Republic that are still narrowbody captains, while we have some very junior pilots who are holding widebody because no one wants to be on reserve. Those are the kind of issues that will be tough and need to be addressed, but in a nutshell I think relative position by equipment.