Originally Posted by
capncrunch
Exactly! If someone is going to do a comparison of retirements then the retirements should be looked at as a percentage of the stand alone group. Based on NWAs smaller size the retirement percentage is much more significant than what is being alluded to on this thread.
It does not really matter anymore anyway but I don't like to see what we gave up belittled.
I think you need to bring aircraft retirements and a shrinking fleet into that equation also. Let's not forget there was documented evidence in the arbitration that NWA was going to furlough. You can't get too myopic and only look at attrition. AAA had a lot of attrition too, but they also had a shrinking fleet. There are no replacement aircraft on order for the retiring DC-9 fleet and what about the inefficient 747-200 fleet.
I think when you consider all the equities brought into the merger, which includes attrition, fleet differentials, DAL growth, NWA contraction, pre merger pay differentials, you end up with the list we got. The NWA guys get to enjoy some super seniority today, DAL guys will catch up to where they should be in the next 3-5 years.
No use whining about it, it is what it is, we all loss something.