Originally Posted by
djrogs03
I'm curious to see what will happen in SLC. For one, I know 12 Airbus's are going out there in January to be based for NWA/DAL and some of the MD's will be coming to MSP, you will see the heavy flying (747 & 330) shift to other domestic bases and the (767 & 777) will take their place with the smaller market in MSP. Does this mean since the market has shrunken so much in MSP, that we will see more 50-76 seat aircraft out of the Twin Cities? Who knows....nothing like taken 13 people to STL on a 76 seat RJ
While I know SKW represents a percentage of flying in SLC, I still find it odd that SLC was only supposed to last 2-4 months tops and yet here we are, 9 months later still doing it. As far as the other bases are concerned a buddy over at CZ told me that the Embraer base in MEM will prob be moving to LGA sometime early next year. They seem to be ramping up for alot of flying out of there with the gate swaps.
While from a seniority integration, a merger wouldn't make sense, but from a cost standpoint it would...as long as there were appropriate fences in place (Common Fleet type betwen XJ & Comair). One management team for all the wholly owned (who still wouldn't know what they are doing)...and one flow through program to DAL...
Man you guys are making some sharp observations. Yeah, you are right. When Xj first started flying out of SLC, many, especially SkyWest people said how they have to have certain percentage of flying and that XJ would only be there for few months at best. Well, we are going into December and Xj is doing more flying out of SLC than ever before. Now XJ even has overnights in SFO, SAT and Spokane.
You are right about LGA flying. I have observed that and I have heard that CZ will most likely share that flying with Comair and XJ may do a little. Seems like DAL is splitting up certain sectors between XJ, Comair and CZ. CZ seems to be getting the LGA flying, and XJ seems to be getting more flying out to the West and Midwest. In between, XJ is also getting cities like IAD out of MSP, and SLC to various western destinations.
As for MSP flying, few well respected aviation analysts have predicted that MSP will be relegated to more DCI flying whereas hubs like DTW and ATL, LAX and SLC will get more international flying.
I still do not think merger will happen. DAL management does not want to buy into additional headache of trying to merge very senior Comair pilots with senior XJ pilots. A stronger possibility will be for DAL to sell one of its wholly owned regionals. We all know DAL was unable to sell Comair. No one wants to buy Comair at this point. Comair is saddled with a long list of very senior pilots and way too many 50 seat RJs. So that leaves XJ and CZ. Who will go first is the question.