Originally Posted by johnso29 (Post 783365)

Delta Cargo has inked a new one-year agreement with the U.S. Postal Service to transport mail throughout the U.S. with first-year revenue potential of $10 million.
The deal, which runs through September 2011, supplements Delta Cargo’s existing international mail agreement in effect at six U.S. stations: Atlanta, Detroit, Honolulu, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK, San Francisco and San Juan.

This summer, the domestic mail agreement will expand to an additional five stations that are also within the international mail scope: Chicago-O’Hare, Los Angeles, Miami, and Newark.

“The mail is a highly profitable product that is perfectly suited for our domestic narrow-body network,” said Nick Whalen, general manager-Postal Affairs for Delta Cargo. “Delta will be successful with this program because our agreement affords us the ability to launch within a limited route network and gives us the opportunity for controlled growth over time.”

Airport Customer Service employees support the effort by loading and unloading the mail shipments during the established aircraft turn times. Delta Cargo scans 100% of the mail and tenders it to a USPS facility or a designated recovery location.

Delta Cargo will expand the mail network to include other cities where feasible, Nick said.

This new agreement supports the 2010 Flight Plan Finance goal to grow profits by 10% from Commercial Aviation Services that include Delta Cargo.

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 783326)

I do not think we have seen all of the bad, but lets hope the worst is past us.

We do need to see a rationalization of the industry. Until then we will all muddle along.

Originally Posted by forgot to bid (Post 782951)

http://gradeinflation.com/gibyconference.jpg

Best part of this is dedicated to Satch from Lein, Shizzi and Beer, and me. Honestly, I'm so confused but I feel vindicated too. Sweet:

The East
1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Engineering and science based schools dominate the Sweet Sixteen of Tough A's. Their workloads are higher and their grades are lower than national averages. Rensselaer fits right in with a high quality student body and an average GPA about 0.25 below typical private schools of its caliber.

2. Princeton University. The Tigers are a newcomer to the tough A. Leadership here has worked hard over the last few years to make sure that excellence is accorded only to those that truly deserve it. Princeton may be new to reversing grade inflation, but in this year's tourney, they may go all the way.

3. Boston University. BU's student body complains mightily about grades and how hard it is to get an A. At a lot of schools such complaints defy reality. But at BU, getting a B average puts you right in the middle of pack. Graduating with a 3.5 makes you a star.

4. MIT. The Beavers likely deserve a higher seed, but their leadership is very, very tight lipped about their grades. When MIT last slipped and published some data several years ago, the average GPA was less than 3.2. At schools with comparable talent like Harvard and Yale, GPA's are 0.2 to 0.4 higher.

The South
1. Virginia Commonwealth University. Public schools in urban settings can be very tough places to earn an A. At VCU, even getting a B can be an achievement. Its average GPA is 2.6, far below national averages.

2. Hampden-Sydney College. H-SC is a very small school tucked away in the South. It's had modest problems with grade inflation over the last decade, but H-SC's grades are still so low relative to other liberal arts colleges that it fully merits a number 2 seed in the very tough Southern region.

3. Roanoke College. Liberal arts colleges tend to be easy A heaven. That's not so at Roanoke where B is still the most common grade and A's are earned less than 30 percent of the time.

4. Auburn University. Another Tiger in this year's Sweet Sixteen. Eat your hearts out 'Bama; Auburn is just a tougher place to earn an A.

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Originally Posted by Mesabah (Post 783429)

If the foreign countries default on their debt which is looking like close to a 100% possibility. Fuel prices will plummet along with international demand. The domestic market will suddenly find new life, and will be DAL's bread and butter, that's if they can get a handle on their product(DCI).

A huge mistake to focus on international traffic, just my two cents.....

Originally Posted by Scoop (Post 783422)

$10 million - Ha! Our crack management team can (and probably will, going by their track record) blow that in a cool month by being on the wrong side of fuel hedges. But what the Hell - it's something. :)

Scoop - Trying to be optimistic!

Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 783174)

Hockey:
This will be true if we sell anymore scope. If not and we actually retain teh 76+ seat flying you may be an A sooner than that. Time will tell as the next few years will test if what we are saying is more than just words.