Nice username. My dad has several Alfas one of which is a 1956 1900 CSS 3-window coupe. I had a chance to go on a race track as the passenger in it, loads o' fun. Waaaay out of my price range. Back to topic -

US Airways : I agree. If US doesn't get an identity they won't make it in the long run. I don't see them going anywhere anytime soon though, at least I hope not, baring a merger.

Southwest : Southwest seems to know their business plan is poor in the long term. Oil may be overpriced now, but at some point it will go up and stay up. When that happens Southwests core customer will no longer be able to afford to fly, unless they or the airline is government subsidized.

Doug Parker : Always amusing how when it comes to employee pay US is a struggling minor player, but when it comes to Parker's compensation, look out we're a fortune 500 major airline. What is annoying is when asked about his salary he always quotes base salary. I can quote a chapter's worth on share-based compensation, since I'm getting a second degree in accounting. However, I don't remember being taught while getting my management degree that you have to treat the employee group like idiots. My school must not have been as good We could do a lot worse though as far as CEOs go

 

I sure like the way you think, but Delta management obviously prefers to outsource this flying and make some marginal profit. Delta wants to avoid competition which would instantly result in this flying being unprofitable. Delta wants to avoid capital expenditures and risk.

Mergers always look cheaper than they turn out to be. With a stock swap the only immediate costs are all the attorneys and management time (which the players profit from tremendously). The real benefit to the merger is growing without having to compete for that revenue.

Delta (and the other carriers) will continue the cycle of merging and shrinking as long as they can. It takes an irrational player, like Virgin America, or Southwest back when they were "nuts" and proud of it, to actually put up a fight in this mature and saturated market.

Remember, Delta fought a war of attrition with Val-U-Jet / AirTran in Atlanta. The record shows Delta went bankrupt and damn near insolvent. Southwest now has 1/3 of the gates in Atlanta.

Crystal ball says we'll keep doing what we have been doing ... merge & shrink to the most profitable core of what we acquire. Use the merger process to capture revenue and grow without capital expenditure. (ALPA is VERY SMART to have learned how to capitalize on the process).

 

True, but Delta now has a better airline and a lot less pensions to fund.

 

I wish that were true. As a reminder, the only pilot group to lose their pension was the pre-merger Delta guys. Everyone else kept theirs. Delta still has huge pension obligations.

 

But it is true. If Delta still had their pensions, & NWA came to the merger with theirs then Delta would have WAY more pension obligation.

 

Johnso, perhaps you are unaware, that all Delta employees still have their pensions.... except the pilots. So, with ~70,000 employees, all but about 7,000 still have a defined benefit pension, with its huge funding obligation.

 

I thought they had defined contribution pensions. That's what my wife, a FA, has.

 

Assuming she was hired prior to their defined benefit plan freeze (probably around the time DAL entered bankruptcy), she has both.

 

I most certainly was NOT aware of that. Thanks for the clarification.

 

...and for the 1000th time stated on this forum: all fNWA pilots did not keep their pension. It's actually a small percentage of fNWA pilots.