A few thoughts.
Supposedly CAL maintains a higher fleet utilization than CAL. That, along with a few planes in the desert, might allow for minor growth going forward.
When management says 1-2% growth, you need to ask where is the growth coming from? With CAL and their 50 seat scope, the dog wagged the tail. Here at mother UAL, mainline can shrink, but there can be a net system growth via regional capacity growth. UAL might be at the block hour limit for scope, but they can replace almost every 50 seat lawn dart with a 70 seat, remain under the cap, and increase system wide asms.
Regarding the lawn darts, does anyone have an answer to HSLD's comment? Do they really think they can apply UAL's scope to the combined fleet?