Originally Posted by Lighteningspeed

This is all interesting speculations and I have no idea how this is going to end up. I guess based on the above posts, there are 3 possible ways things could turn out:
One, DAL builds up Compass and divest it to third party investors like RAH or Skywest or better yet another Holding Coporation. I do not think DAL wants Skywest or RAH to get any bigger than it already is but money talks to these DAL beancounters as they only seem to care about short term profits. Two, Mesaba, Compass is merged by DAL under the same Holding Corporation. I left out Comair in this equation because I do not think DAL wants Comair in this mix for various reasons. Three, Comair is sold off or continue to get thrashed by reducing their fleet, everything from CRJ200s to CRJ7s and CRJ9s. To this I'd like to add the Fourth scenario, and that is gradually all Mesaba Saabs are parked and replaced with CRJ9s and CRJ7s from either ASA or Comair. I am only throwing this out because I have now heard this from 3 different sources.

Compass would make an attractive buy for Skywest or RAH but the big drawback for them would be the Compass Flowback agreement with DAL which could create additional training costs. However, to a third party Holding Coporation interested in buying Compass, they may not necessarily care about the Flowback agreement. There's also a possibility Skywest or RAH may try to buy Compass with the provision that in case DAL furloughs and sends them to Compass after the sale, DAL would agree to pay for the training costs to the buyer.