Jealous lowly FO.....

Well that's not the same thing :)

You've got excellent taste, Sir! Hope we get to fly together some day.

Thanks guys!

Nice!!!! !

Ha. I'm sure it was a difficult concept to explain to a non-forum person. I texted him that you were one of the funniest people I knew, but in the next text wrote that we had never met.

APC'ers are a strange breed. :D

From a SWA thread, has anyone heard this yet?

Looks like the 717 may is being used as a form of trade with Delta for a gate SWAP in ATL. Sources say that WN first 4 gates will be at the D gates starting in Feb 2012 and now WNand Delta are in talks about trading All the FL C gates for all of Delta D gates.

Along with this gate trade WN will trade 30 717 for 10 737-700 and 3 737-800 from Delta next year.Along with this WN will be adding a mix of 80 new and used 737-700 and 800 from a Boeing leasing company from June 2012 until Jan 2013.

During this time frame 6 717 will be moved from the fleet at a time and replaced with New and used 737-700 and 800. Delta will add the 717 to replace the 29 DC 9 50 and the 13 737 in the swap plus add additional aircraft.

When all is said and done WN will have off loaded all of the 717. Retired all the 737-500 and a few 737-300. The cost saving from not having redo any 717 into the WN fleet and the retirement off all the 737-500 and some older 300 will end up saving WN millions a year.

And at ATL WN will end up with all the D gates with 30 gates total that will be able to handle a 737-800 The only down side is 1# no 717 in ever in the WN fleet.

Videos from the DPA meeting in ATL are up:

Delta Pilots Association - Video

Interesting. Sounds like a good deal to me. :)

Here's my take:
This has always been awin-win deal, the gates add a new element.

Dots, Nuggets, Hints, call 'em what you want.

• WN isn't interested in a SOC type merger, they will run this more like an asset purchase by slowly transferring ATI jets and crews to the WN certificate, 2-weeks of indoc for the crews, no FAA required.
  
• DAL just unloaded the remaining 737-800 options with the 739ER order, those roll over to WN.
  
• 20 717s just became unavailable from Boeing Capital. They have been sitting on these jets with nothing to do and just found a taker for 20 of them within days of the 739ER order announcement.

At just around $40M/jet the 739ER was a smoking deal (go see the 8-K) for a 180 seater, that would make the 737-700 price about $30M/jet using similar discounts for 124 seats. Compare that with 13.5M/jet Hawaiian just paid Boeing Capital for their 717 with 123 seats and it's obvious from a capital perspective where the 100-110 seater will come from. The C-Series can't compete in that market from a capital cost standpoint.

Take the 20 Boeing 717, add the Guadeloupe Holdings (Airtran) 717 and that's the DC-9 replacement fleet. A 3:1 swap for 717/737 always seemed the most equitable way to swap. I imagine the DC-9s accelerated retirement keeps GK happy about not helping a competitor grow with a 2:1 advantage...

As exciting as all this might be, I'm wondering where that leaves the DAL pilot when the dust settles. Will this deal be staffing positive?

Cheers
George