The keyword is opinion though. Mesaba may have fronted an idea that Delta said made financial and operational sense and were given the green light. Delta may have also come to XJ and said "hey, we want you to fly some DCI routes and old Airlink routes so we can have that airplane flying x amount of hours per day with minimal ferries" (and unnecessary fuel burns). Either way Mesaba "worked" with Delta to get it done, but doesn't necessarily mean the idea was their own.

Don't forget that once the merger happened, there was no longer such a thing as a NWA route. Delta wants decently efficient schedules as well, they'd prefer the airplanes to be flying revenue, not parked or ferried.

I would certainly hope that a regional airline's management would at least have some original thoughs and ideas regarding the operation of "their" airline. But, I am absolutely of the opinion that if Delta decides NOT to act on the ideas given by regional management, that they (DCI mgmt) has no choice but to go with what they're told to do.

Now if we're talking in house ops, policies and procedures..that's a different story. But in terms of "strategy", routes and fleet (barring contractual obligations) I think that's all under Delta's roof.

**Looking at what is being done at Comair, contractual fleet obligations also mean nothing, they'll find a way around it. :-\