Originally Posted by
stobelma
I think that same question is being asked but all the regionals for both Northwest and Delta. I do think however the wholly owned carriers will be at an advantage as they can save costs on redundant positions and departments i.e. what Northwest is already doing with Compass and Mesaba through the holding company. In addition.....why would Delta destroy an asset. The wholly owned regionals are worth money and can potentially be spun off so why destroy them before making money off of them. Anyone flying 200s is probably on the chopping block for the reason that there will be some many of them after the merger is complete. Also, everyone thinks that they are safe by their ironclad agreements. I'm sure Delta knows what it wants to do and already has lawyers hard at work ready to try and cut some of them off the Delta payroll.
This is just my thoughts but like everyone the answer to your question is pretty simple..........Who knows
its funny because i think the exact opposite. now is not a good time to be wholly owned. being owned by an airline that is about to merge is not a good thing right now. delta has already agreed that our contract will stand. it will still be good till 2017, and that is straight from andersons mouth in the recent press release. so if you want to cut back, but your contract carriers have contracts that must be honored, where do you start? you start with the people you have no contract with. you start with the people you don't have any obligations to. right now comair, mesaba, and compass have no contract to even call "ironclad". there is nothing there. it is all at the whim of what big daddy delta says.
and as far as our 200's go they will be around till we can get a 1 for 1 replacement with 900's. we operate the newest 200's in the country. i wouldn't doubt with oil going back down that they will continue to use the planes till the frames time out. we do over 33% of the lift for nwa. and it is all on 200's. i don't think daddy delta is ready to take that kind of a pay cut immediatly after the merger.