Can anyone tell me the significance of this article other than Delta is pulling one flight out of one market?

As of just a few days ago, DAL filed another suit to terminate the contract. Apparently, mesa has to have a certain amount of equity on hand to maintain the contract. They have fallen below that target, so DAl is once again trying to get out of the contract. I see the Chautauqua contract being terminated, I don't see the shuttle one though. 76 seat jets seem to be all the rage.

On a side note, DAL could get mainline type quality service her at XJ, they haven't forced the issue as of yet.

IMHO, it may signify a huge shift in the way we "connect" our passengers to our route system.
In effect, connect them with a code share. The worry, point of it, is that it allows DAL the ability to get a 100 seat jet though a code share, and not a DCI agreement.

We need to see where this goes.

Those large jets may be shifted. Just wait, more to play on that front.

Mesa is getting the ax from both DAL and UAUA.

You guys at Delta finally get it. What's the difference between being a DCI and a one way code-share...

No Scope Limits

Does anyone know how much money was paid to Delta by Republic?
Does anyone know how much financial risk Delta takes on by guaranteed fuel costs for Republic?

The DCI are charging Delta for delivering passengers into your system and the same thing can be done with a well written one way code-share.

and as I wrote, add Alaska Airlines to the DCI club, just with much larger airplanes:

DOT request to substitute Alaska for DAL

Keep in mind that RAH has been a cooperative partner with Delta. For example, when Delta was pushing to reduce capacity last year, RAH removed 15 E135's from service, even though the contract for those aircraft had not expired, nor been subject to cancellation. This reduction was a help to Delta financially and operationally.

Delta has agreed to a Midwest/Delta codeshare agreement SINCE RAH announced its plan to acquire Midwest. Delta knows what is going on, and at no time has Delta had to jump through a set of ugly public hoops to get their way with RAH. Likewise, when Delta was no adhering to its contractual obligations with RAH (specifically aircraft utilization), RAH did not use its legal options to extract all the money it was owed. RAH has maintained relatively positive business relationships with its partners, and has received respectable treatment in return. Delta will not just take RAH to court and sue its way out of the CHQ and S5 feed contracts.

One other point of interest (theory only), is that RAH owns and leases back slots at DCA and LGA. Delta and Airways recently swapped some slots rights at these two airports, which are both served by RAH companies. RAH may have been a facilitator in this transaction that benefited Delta. Again, RAH may provide more value to Delta as a partner than as strictly a competitor.

Hi!

In case you missed it when TGP bought Midwest they publicly said that NWA put in "some capital" in the deal. It turned out NWA bought 49% of Midwest, just so it would'nt be a "merger".

Many pilots pointed out that, at the time this buyout occurred, DAL and NWA were already cooperating, so the whole thing may have been orchestrated by DAL (or Air France???) mgmt from the beginning.

cliff
NBO
PS-Just met a Martinair crew. Did not know they were owned by KLM.
It is now: Air France/KLM/DAL/NWA/Mesaba/Comair/Compass/Martinair/Kenya Airways/Precision Air/???/???. One big corporate conglomerate.

Can somebody help him understand why Delta pilots being replaced with lower paid pilots is an issue which will haunt him when his bargaining agent seeks pay restoration in contract 2012?

I agree with you.

Delta met with Republic in July 2008 to restructure its connect business and offered Republic the Midwest Deal including the code-share agreement. This deal has been in the works for a year.

Merge all the Midwest Pilots.