General Lee
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2002
- Posts
- 20,442
skykid said:That's obvious, and I commend you for it. You've got to remember, Delta only only has one union to deal with - a major advantage when it comes to flexibility. They'll get through Ch11 quicker because of it. GL, I love the route structure match up with NWA and Delta. How do you integrate the fleets?
Good question. That is the one area that is "nebulous". At first it might not matter because certain planes could be used on original routes I guess. But, the rest of our fleet is kinda old (except 738s, 764s, and 777s), so the newly formed airline could ask for low bids from Boeing and Airbus to fill in the "rest of the fleet". NW did switch to mostly Airbus, but also ordered 20 787s. That was kinda surprising--you would think they would have stuck with all Airbus--like the A350. Look at South African Airlines. They have switched their relatively small fleet from Boeing to Airbus a few times. So, it isn't beyond the realm(sp?) of possibility. We have older fleets, and someday they will need to be updated. A good old fashion showdown between Boeing and Airbus for a large order could yield some savings.... All speculation anyway. If you merge two large airlines you can get rid of one of the managements, one of the reservation groups (our large one is in India), half of the ground people at each airport they both serve, and integrate fleets slowly. We already will be getting rid of 4 fleet types initially, and NW will be getting rid of DC9s, DC10s, and some older 757s. I wish Song could have those....?
Bye Bye--General Lee