Mesa got an injunction against Delta today. It does not look like Delta is going to be able to walk away from their DCI contracts. It would be hard to imagine Delta walking away from Comair after sinking more than 3Bn into that operation.

It may be that 50 seaters replace DC9's and today's little legal development did not help matters.

The regional industry is about to go through a major overhaul just as the majors are. Its no surprise that the 50 seaters are on the chopping block, especially the older CRJs.

The key is flexibility. They can park them or they can fly them. If they park them, they save money. If they fly them their total cost of operation is about the same as other 100 seat airplanes that have to be leased. If you don't understand that, I can't help you.

Carl

winning the injunction doesn't mean they have won the case...DAL could still "win" if the company can prove Mesa did not honor it's agreement.

And as far as the 9s go...posts on the DALPA boards say an FAA MX inspector who was on board an AC recently is one of the MX guys working on the combined plan and there are no -9s in it. Again...just rumor....

thats funny i just heard a rumor from a FAA MX inspector that DAL was parking all their 22 year old 767s. Heard that on the NWA FA board, Again its just a rumor....

I don't know about "all" of them but I believe there are a few that are going to be returned to the lessors if they can't re-negotiate a better deal on them. Those that are returned will be the non ER 300s.

The fleet flexibility created by the merger could give us tremendous flexibility. Right now, DAL has no in between aircraft on the 757-200 and the 767-300. However, the "new" DAL will have the 757-300s. They may be sufficient to replace some 767s. The 767ERs and some 777s will likely go to MSP and DTW and ATL may get the larger guage A330s and 747s. MD-80s may leave SLC for DTW and SLC gets A320s that are better suited for the longer haul flying out of there. Hard to say but adding the complexities of multiple fleet types may be offset by the flexibility we get from them.

I'm still trying to be optimistic about this even with the sabre rattling going on.

Super, and dtfl... why do guys continually post those kind of crap rumors? My wife's podiatrist's secretary's boyfriend said... I mean come on guys... give it a rest.

Don't leave us hanging...what did he say??? Was it confirmed by the crew bus driver?

Parking the DC-9's is not rumor. NWA's premerger fleet plan for 08 had them being reduced from over 100 aircraft to 68. Just a few years ago there were 160 DC-9's. Recent changes bring that number down to around 60 at the end of the year. That is a loss of over 40 aircraft this year. I don't think you could phase them out any faster if you wanted to.

I think the injunction just means Delta can't terminate the contract prior to the case going in front of a judge. It buys them some time but I think that's it. I'm following the big money on this one and if DAL, a $20 billion annual revenue company with their legal department on retainer feel they can win this, than I bet they've done their homework. I don't think Mesa will be victorious. Here's hoping for three flights a day on mainline that will replace their 10 frequencies a day at subpar service.