Your touting of "new" captain positions continues to be faulty logic on your part. You have this inate ability to recite numbers and then come to wrong conclusions... much like your ability to never be able to use "your/you're" correctly.

Junior captain on this bid didn't even make it to 7000.

The people making captain on these bids are all those who previously held or were able to hold captain. Those who were displaced off of widebody captain back in the 09-12 timeframe have also largely not been able to recover those positions.

That's pretty much what I got out of that. Looks like profits to be returned to shareholders, which is a good thing.

What surprised me was the statistic that the average age of the Delta fleet is over 16 years old and his claim that Delta's biggest competitors are state-run airlines.

Delta Said to Study Order for $4.3 Billion in Wide-Bodies - Bloomberg

If management had said we were getting more wide body aircraft, I would be skeptical.

So if our management is saying they have no intention of placing a wide body order until the end of the decade, then I'm still skeptical.

Yep. The state run carriers are the scourge of the global airline industry. They get much lower loans and when they don't make money, they are propped up by their governments.

It was hard to tell if he dodged the question on widebodies or poo-poo'd the latest rumors. He was very clear on flat capacity year over year and making sure the carrier is investment grade.

Yes, we have to remember that what he says is tempered and aimed towards investors, not other groups.

Yep. They have to at least be concerned with how little large metal we have compared to US/AA and UA.

Just yankin' your chain sweetheart. I flew with a buddy of yours the other day. I have question on IM that he told me to ax ya... comin' at ya.

Well - while on the stock exchange floor on a channel watched mostly by stock-traders, he isn't going to get close to saying "growing capacity" or imply anything like that. Also, remember that parking RJs and adding mainline jets is still "flat capacity".

He's talking about Delta seats overall.

True, but investors aren't going to be real excited by "flat", they want to hear "growth" and I could be wrong, but he said orders for 737-900s and regional jets and deferred the 787 orders.

Doesn't sound to me that Delta is building up with WBs and growing, sounds like he's consolidating.

......and free beer tomorrow.