Anyone heard of any significant shifts of flying based on DTW and MSP 755 turning into 7ER on 1 May? I guess we won't really know until the bid packs come out for may, but a casual glance at current schedules only shows a couple of 767 destinations out of each, FRA and CDG are the only ones I remember of the top of my head.

I would assume that when the 755 guys get their 767 bumps and that whole process is done, the 755 will become 7ER. Should happen in a month or so.

Jack I have been charting DAL for a long long time. It will break one way or another. I have thought for about 12-15 months that by Dec 2010 DAL would trade near 18. With our numbers jumping that could be conservative.

Some of these guys think the stock could triple. DYODD.

They've already announced that DTW and MSP are changing from 755 to 7ER on the 1st of May.

Other than NWA, no US passenger airline has ever run an even remotely successful freight operation. I think it's because they don't teach Air Freight Management at Harvard:p. Even Fred Smith's Fed Ex dissertation got low marks from his professors.

When I flew for Atlas in the preceding century, their PROFIT was $2000 per flight hour (of course, the CFOs pencil-whipped that out of existence, but the money was there). There's big bucks in boxes, but so far no passenger airline has figured out how to do it right.

A Passenger airline needs to have dedicated cargo ops as well. Our problem is that Air France as a small air force of cargo jets. That means they get the "big box" stuff.

I want to see a ton of cargo flying here. I think that we can use a lot of our older jets for that. We are maxing out underwing cargo on so many flights. It is were me I would be looking at dedicated target cargo ops.

thats probably because all the airline mgmts out there pretty much mimic the other airlines. SWA being the exception up to this point. Airline mgmt teams are reactionary, there are very few visionaries left in this business or any business for that matter.

There are too many lawyers and beancounters in our industry to, god forbid, think outside the "box". Hopefully our group of leaders will be different and so far they seem to be attempting to take the reigns in our business. Its all about the next quarters stock price instead of long term investment in the company to make it better.

I've also noticed only a couple 767 flights out of MSP or DTW. Do you think the MSP or DTW based pilots will fly those ER flights to FRA or CDG from DTW or MSP, or will they still give it to ATL or JFK? DL has spent a lot of money to give the DAL-N guys bounces in the 767s, so they should get a chance to fly them I would think.

Bounces? They got bounces? I don't think DAL has done that since the DC-9 and early 727 days. Wonder why they would start that up again.

It is a lot cheaper to send 20 guys up for bounces with one LCA than to do that many IOEs It is all about money.

I would assume that those bases will be doing that flying. Makes sense and allows those to be out and backs. Doing that will save DAL about 130K per route per year in hotel rooms alone.