I've always been excited about the prospect of Memphis, if it doesn't go away.

I don't think that is quite true, I posted on here a while back what will happen with the bases and listed Seattle as a base that will go quite senior and that Delta pilots will move into. We had a base in both PDX and SEA and most of those pilots did not move. For the same reason LAX and ATL are going to get hit hard by NWA pilots moving in, SEA will get hit by DAL pilots moving in. Its simple demographics. Look at where the pilots live today and you can predict where they will fly out of quite closely. I know that regardless of how the seniority list goes I am going to get hurt in Atlanta. If you live in the DET/MSP/NYC area you will do quite well. SEA/LAX/ATL are going to get hurt no matter how you slice things. SLC will be hurt also but not to the extent of the above 3. CVG and MEM will get hurt but not by pilot demographics, instead they will be downsized or closed by the company.

I think that you will see a bunch of the DFW guys go to MSP and DTW depending on what equipment gets based there. MSP is a same time zone commute and that is very important going to work.
I know that I am looking at it. Heck even the 88 trips that will be built out of there will be better. More 3+ hr legs to each coast means less ups and downs a day. Now I like that.

MSP is an interesting case. Yeah lots of commuters (including me) but there are also alot of ice/cheese heads who think it's the best place on earth...don't ya know. And it is.....in the summer, just beautiful. Also, the airport is a great facility.

Anyway, lots of upper midwest local boys who will never leave the "quality of life" (ice fishing and snow mobiling)

What concerns me about the NWA bases is that many of them are in the "ice-belt." I wonder if DAL management has looked at the costs of maintaining hubs in the north (de-icing, maintanence, equipment) as compared to the midwest or south.

The same can also be said for ATL. ATL is the backbone of DAL. If one little thunderstorm pops up anywhere near ATL, things go into chaos mode. Although four runways are incredibly efficient, conflicting ATC and Attila messages aren't (speed up, no slow down, no no no speed up faster, no no no no slow down and turn right 90 degrees).

I would rather see DAL use smaller more strategic based and efficient hubs rather than large hubs that are suceptible to lots of de-icing and the normal afternoon thunderstorm. If we can't do that, perhaps we could shift peak flying in conjuction with the seasons... for example, max out ATL in the late fall and winter months while maxing out MSP during the spring and summer.

With that being said, NYC as a "hub" has got to go. In my limited 5 months of flying with DAL, I've had TWO flights pushback and/or depart/land on-time at JFK. The rest of my flights have consisted of tow problems, loading problems, congestion blocking access to your ramp, broken gates, hour or more taxi time to the runway, and the normal congo line of aircraft getting penalty vectors and slowdowns as far away as South Carolina!! This just isn't a good product for our passengers. Most of the time the delays aren't our fault but that doesn't matter, the passengers are going to associate the delays with DAL.

JFK and LGA need to become focus cities that only have enough staffing to support direct-to flights. NYC is even more suceptible to weather delays. If LGA has to land or takeoff on runway 4, even on the best of weather days you're going to have lots of delays. It amazes me how our country, how the government of NY, has let the icon of the American airline industry become such a sh*thole and it saddens me that the first thing that foreignors experience when they come to the US is Newark or JFK.

-Fatty

All the SLC guys that commute from DFW that I've flown with are saying the same thing. I just hope that enough of them bid out of SLC to offset the number of senior NWA west coast guys that bid into SLC.

Don't we all. I just want to have a fairly decent commute from DFW. None of this JFK or ATL stuff.
Heck I would be happy if they would stick a flight in to LAX from DFW.

Fatty,
There is an old saying here at NWA about our northern hubs. "They're cold, they're dark, but they're ours". No one really has the (what ever ya want to call them) to come up and take us on. Southwest has a small operation out of Detroit but has never grown it and they won't even talk to the Minneapolis people.

As far as deicing is concerned, it is almost a non event any more. I agree, an expensive non event but real easy. Big pads at the ends of each runway and so well organized that ya can't even count on extra money anymore.

Detroit is killing both AA and United in ORD. If all your doing is hubbing out of the midwest, business people have learned that you can get in and out of Detroit much easier than Chicago.

ACL,

NO NO............you stay away from my MSP commute! Unless you can convince the powers that be to put the A319s back on and get rid of the RJs!:D

On another issue, have you heard what we are going to do with gates in DFW? I assume we will either do some sort of swap with Continental and keep E4,5 & 6 or are your's under utilized enough to absorb our flights? According to our gate agents (take that for what it's worth) we have one more flight per day than you do, with fewer gates and agents.

acl,

Old topic, maybe wishful thinking, but I heard DFW board has made a pitch to DAL to make DFW a base again. Has anyone else heard this?