Oh no, there will be a lot of your planes moved around to our bases. DAL sees your domestic feed as dead. They are buying you for the Firth Freedom rights in the Far East. You domestic feed will be used to patch up holes in our system. What buying you allows our route guys to do is this. It allows them to go ahead with the five/ten year plan today. They will have the airframes to do the lift now, and not add to the debt. NWA's debt is cheap for what they are getting. Now granted your airframes will be replaced over time, but it is a good fix for the near term. We will not destroy MSP, DTW or MEM, but rather shift RJ's and narrow body lift around to fill in the gaps.
I see the number of RJ's in NYC, and ATL decreasing, but remember this. There is only so much DAL can bring to ATL. We are basically maxed out on ramp space as is. So in essence your argument holds some water, but not all that you think. Now LAX, that is a different story all together. My bet is to see a decent amount of expansion out there in the next few years. Both in to Mexico, the Western US, the far East and to the Southern Pacific. It is DAL's intent to remake that hub. When those guys spoke to us over a year ago they stated that there were big plans out there, but we just did not have the lift or lift on order to do it in the near term. Now with this merger we do.
You will probably see 767's in MSP and DTW, and 330 and 744's in LAX, ATL and NYC within six months of DCC. I would expect a sizable aircraft order shortly after this is all finalized, but it truly depends on the credit market. If DAL's widely held rating is any indication, the market is beginning to realize that this airline will have some serious teeth. People are buying in to DAL now that this plan is seeing the light of day. Many believe that in the next few years our value will rise. I agree with that. If anyone has a chance to weather this economic storm it is DAL/NWA.
