Delta doesn't pay for staffing, other than station staffing. All flight crew expenses are on ASA.

The 80% in flying covers both SkyWest and ASA flying out of Atlanta. This used to be ASA, but was renegotiated when Delta took over the ASA ramp operation in ATL.

Speaking of Delta taking over the ramp, rumor has it that all current ASA outstations have their station ops out for bid. I'd imagine Comair would snap all of these up given their push into ground service operations.

Also, ASA's contract for Delta covers 151 aircraft. This was in the current Among Friends. It is a hard aircraft number, not a block hour number. So, the way I see it, after the ATRs leave we are in breach of contract unless Delta awards us more aircraft. Also, Delta can't easily take their 30 or so 200s back unless they are replaced due to the contract that they signed.

I would imagine that for the purposes of "second lowest costs" that SkyWest and ASA are considered the same airline. Remember that JA himself said that SkyWest bids one price to Delta and decides internally who to award the aircraft to (there's no decision, it's always SkyWest...) So to Delta, it is one entity, so why determine the cost structure separately?

We have until 5 years from the date of purchase to be second lowest cost. A lot can happen in 2 years (just look at the way things were around here 2 years ago). The only reason SkyWest is a much lower cost structure that ASA is because they have about 1000 additional pilots, as well as 100 or so more aircraft to spread their costs over. You switch places with ASA and SkyWest and ASA would be every bit of the lower cost machine that SkyWest is. After all, Jerry gave the SkyWest pilots the ASA payscale after we signed our deal, and our workrules are identical. Keep in mind that when SkyWest bought ASA, we were the low cost machine!

So, the sky is not falling. ASA is in decent shape. The trend with DCI carriers may be to the wholly owneds, but we all heard that story in 1999. Things can and do change.