Nice rant. You might want to fact check though.

In October, 1986 when the merger was announced, Western had a total pilot force of about 1500 spread through SLC, SEA, SFO, and LAX. I'm pretty sure DEN and MSP were already closed. Delta grew the LAX operation in the early 90's and got to about 200 departures peak per day from all 5 LAX basin airports, but in my memory the base never got over 1000 pilots. We started shrinking LAX in the mid to late 90's (737 base went away first around 1996?), and as we closed the failed PDX/LAX west coast international MD-11/L15 experiment LAX got hammered. We pulled out of all the Mexican beach markets (ACA, IXT, MZT, PVR), ended seasonal ANC and FAI, and Canadian Open Skies killed YVR, YYC and YEG. We went down to about 70 departures per day from only 3 basin airports.

All that happened before any code share with Alaska. The codeshare didn't become a "big deal" until after the merger.

BTW, last year I posted pax numbers from LAX basin since the mid 90's. Delta was growing over the last couple of years. ALA was shrinking/consolidating. So with the codeshare Delta grew...

The facts don't support your rant.

btw, USAir used to be #1 in LAX. Then UAL was #1. DAL tried it for a while. SWA became top dog for a brief period. AMR tried it once before and as AAL appears to be trying again. It's a tough geographic location to be a true "hub."

Welcome back Carl, I missed you. See above post.

And guys like you type with certitude on subjects that aren't supported by the facts...

just who is emotional?;)

Yea! Go Salukies!

Oh no, I was right, the Illini War Chant.

That song is awesome.

OK, rolling thunder gurus, 39 hours of credit in July for vacation at the end of the month. I am also senior, so I assume getting the beginning of JUly off will not be a problem. With an ALV of 84, how many reserve days will I have to do, and is the strategy just to bid the beginning days of the month off? Thanks

Sports? Politics? Religion?

Less emotion would be involved. :D

I had an ER Captain on a long trip to GRU look at me and go "Sex, politics, religion, you chose." :D

I said nah. He said, "okay, I'll start. My son's girlfriend is hot, I know they're out in the car having sex so I told him to take it upstairs. There is no God. Bush belongs in the Hague."

I was laughing so hard, I had nothing to say. We were polar opposites but I enjoyed flying with him.

One of my best trips was a 12 day DC10 Asia trip with a guy who was my polar opposite. It sharted out with him asking me who I had in the election. We were barely through 10,000' on the first leg. Taught me not to take stuff so seriously.

I bet you. $50,000 that those two guys would get along perfectly, too.
:D

If this kid thinks he'll be done paying for college when he turns 51...

His dick must not work.