Originally Posted by Airsupport

Absolutely. If someone walked in with the cash to buy comair, compass, or mesaba Delta would sign and begin the transition before the ink is dried. And in doing so the buying company would make sure they had work to do and would get delta to agree to a flying contract while taking the company off their hands. Its been that way for a long time. Unload them, get some money for the sale, and then start cutting their flying when the contract is up. Once the airline has been brought to its knees and is worth nothing the major will buy them back up, give them tons of flying and use that as leverage against the other contract carriers and then sell them off again for a profit. Rinse and repeat.

Originally Posted by minimwage4

And what happens when the contract runs out and no one wants them? A lot of regionals are about to find out the next couple of years. That's why everyone is using their cash reserves to strike under the table deals.