Lead Arsenate - makes yummy cool-aide.
While we are on that topic - General, what's your guess on how this will shake out?
Since you are close to an upgrade, your opinion is particularly interesting. Based on your DOH NWA seniority you would just now be able to bid into a 757 in Detroit. My friends (with equal NWA DOH) would be somewhere between a Compass Regional Jet and the Panel of a classic 747 in Anchorage.
Nobody has started the merger scenario thread - give us a sneak peak....
My vote is that it will not happen. That what we see is a stock pump by those who realize the market lost its focus on fundamentals a long time ago and who instead buy and sell stocks depending on whether Brittany goes into rehab with Dr. Phil.
The DOJ did not kill the US Air UAUA deal, common sense did. In an election year nobody in Washington is going to want a deal that closes a hub.
First of all, if any merger has to take place, I would hope it would be DL and NWA, since there is less overlap and I think the NWA employees would embrace a new leadership and throw out Steenland and his cronies.
As far as name and headquarters, no doubt it will be Delta and based in ATL. There must be a reason we have a RED Delta widget on our new paint scheme. Maybe it was a sign.
As far as seniority integration goes, that would be interesting. Most of our older pilots left for their lump sum, leaving only about 1000 over 50, and 500 over 55. That would put us at a severe disadvantage for DOH merge. So, I would think it would be a percentage type merger--if you are in the top 5% of you current company---you would be in the top 5% of a merged company. There would be fences to keep DL people off the 744 for 5 years, and similar fences for the 777, along with a possible fence down for the DC9 pilots if we think the new Delta would just dump them. (unlikely since they feed DTW and MSP well right now) The MD90 option is always out there to replace the DC9 quickly, and the DC9 guys would probably have an easy time moving up to that plane and they are available now for relatively cheap (rumor has $9 million each including engines--with around 100 out there available--waiting to be replaced by current A320 orders). I am sure we all have watched the USAir and AWA ordeal work out, so we both would know what could happen if one side is too mad and turns into a crybaby.
I see continued expansion in the INTL arena for both airlines, with new 777s coming our way, along with 737-700s for smaller long range stuff (replacing 757s on Quito and Guayaquil soon from ATL). We are getting a second 777 sim soon to be ready to go in July, so I think that fleet will grow. The 787 would be a great 767ER replacement eventually.
Hub wise, I would see a CVG and MEM downsizing, but not total withdrawl. Everyone knows there are LCCs waiting for free hubs and gates to move into without large expense, even though both those cities are not big O&D cities. Look at PIT. That airport was cleaned out when USAir left big time, and nobody has really replaced them.
As far as my upgrade goes, things are still moving here at DL, and we are still getting those new Boiengs this year. Nothing has changed so far, and I can hold Capt on a couple types. We'll see, I am having fun on the INTL side now.
Bye Bye--General Lee
