Originally Posted by
Hawaii50
First I don't see much chance of this happening. Second, I don't think it would do much good for the pilot group. We retire a bunch of NWA DC-9s then turn around and replace them with newer airplanes that come with pilots? I'd rather see us buy the new more efficient generation of airplanes coming online and reclaim some of those seats we've recently retired.
If Delta somehow got the 88 or so 717s from Airtran with their pilots, they may also go for the 25 717s Boeing has without pilots, and that could spur some upgrades and hiring.