3. DC-9's will be in ALT to put more pressure on Airtran by direct head to head flights to various markets that Airtran is soft in and Delta wants to control market share.
You are right. In the next six months there will be massive shifting of assets to right size markets. There will also be moving of aircraft into markets that fit their performance capabilities better. MD-90s will be hubbing out of MSP and A320s out of SLC for example. There will be many NWA crews laying over in DAL hubs and visa versa.
4. I speculate that DCC will happen within the next two weeks.
Good call. I would not be surprised if it was done by Election day.