Originally Posted by
RockyBoy
I think that an Alaska merger would be great for Delta as a corporation if it could be done using very little cash. It would give us the capacity we need in the West without increasing capacity and diluting pricing power out there where margins are already very thin. The codeshare we now have does most of that, but there are alot of overlapping costs that could be eliminated in a merger.
As far as how a merger would go for the Delta pilots is anyones guess. It would go to arbitration and from the past few mergers it would most likely go category and class ratio's. What most people have said is true that widebody guys would most likely take no hit and the narrowbody guys out west would face the most risk to their QOL. However, with a merger I could easily see lots of SEA growth. SEA could have the potential to become the 3rd or maybe even the 2nd largest hub if we merged with
ALK.
I don't see a lot of downside risk for west coast seniority. As stated, all of the 7ER Capts (and 330) would almost certainly be senior to every current AK Capt as would 7ER F/Os to their AK F/O counterparts...if the SLI is consistent with recent history. As for the 73n guys at LAX...that is by far the most junior base for AK, so good possibility the current AK crews there would see more of a base/category hit then would DAL. DAL has no SEA or ANC 73n base so that is a moot point. There would certainly be some pain, but overall, an AK merger has great potential to produce higher profit margins (more opportunity for higher wages and profit sharing) as well as solid growth (faster upgrades)!