Originally Posted by
Bill Lumberg
Ok, I get it, but does anyone want to speculate on whether or not Delta would be "interested" in maybe picking up those 717s? They are 100 seaters more or less, could fill in for DC9s leaving, and the price might be right. I thought Delta hired a guy from Airtran to look into a training program before Mexican got their hands on them. I don't know if Airtran will want them, but do we want Airtran to source 25 more 717s to compete against us somewhere else? I know the Saudi MD90s and the 717 mix didn't happen, but what about using those 717s for a 100 seater for the next 5-8 years?
Dunno Bill,
The MD-90 (Saudia) and the 717s have similar setups. If the 717s showed up, then the case COULD easily be made for a combined category, and if you added them all up, it would be around 50+ airplanes, which would make it worthwhile.
But this all pre-supposes that:
1) DAL wants to be in the 100 seater business
2) They want the Saudia birds bad enough
I don't see anything like this going on, though. If DAL wanted to be in the 100 seat business, they have 30-40 DC-9-30s that have another 3-4 years worth of cycles on them, and they're paid for, with MX and training already in place.
If they wanted to Saudia birds bad enough, they could make that happen, too. We got 16 747-400s...and a similar number of 767-400s. Running a 25+ fleet of MD-90s with a different setup wouldn't be an issue if they really needed the lift.
My point is if the company wants the airplanes, they show up and they make it happens. This ain't my first rodeo, and I've heard every excuse in the book as to why airplanes don't show up. My fav is the "they aren't available", yet when outsourced, the people that got the contract seem to have no difficulty at all finding 25 on their doorstep in 3-4 months.
Nu