Originally Posted by iaflyer

The MD90s do add a twist, but I guess I was looking at the fact that Delta didn't have anything smaller than the MD88 prior to the merger. The DC9s are good because they are paid for, and can be parked if fuel goes up again. I don't know what the going rate for a 717. Two CR9s can serve a market better than a single DC9, the frequency attracts business travelers. A leisure traveler doesn't usually care how often a flight goes, as long as it gets there and the fare is cheap. The business traveler wants the frequency, so I think it would be more attractive to network. The 2 CR9s might be cheaper than a single DC9. However, the company can't add many (or any, not sure, paging ACL...) more CR9s because of scope. They can add any number of mainline aircraft.

Maybe - now that we have another simulator, it makes it easier to have more A330s. Yes, Boeing does owe us money, but everyone here seems to think it's a lot of money. I doubt it's more than $100 million, max. That might be the price of half a new 330. Second, Boeing is more likely to give us a deal on 777s than the competitor's airplanes.

2%-3% growth rate at Delta might mean 240-360 new hires. Now, that means actually nothing, because the 2-3% growth for 2011 is total airline capacity. It includes parking CRJs and adding mainline, so we may have to have more bodies. Also, from what they said last year, they have hired for 2011, any hiring next year is for 2012, which they haven't talked about growth. Finally, as SD says, they staff for block hours, which doesn't directly connect to airline capacity.

I'm all for new hires, so I won't say we won't hire that amount, I'm just saying that who knows. Retirements aren't required yet, and we are seeing big majority of pilots stay past 60.