The ALPA reps were in the ATL lounge today. They were very upbeat about the merger.
The SLI will be agreed to by November. If it can't be jointly agreed to it will go to 3-man arbitration -- each side choosing one arbitrator with the third jointly chosen.
The DC9's are not planned to be parked. They lose money -- but so do the 88s's (and the RJ's). Big picture -- both aircraft are there to feed the international traffic and are subsidized by international traffic. The 9's are paid for and can be parked for several hours per day -- unlike aircraft that are leased.
If the 9's are parked -- if any aircraft are parked after the SLI in November -- furloughs will come off the merged list. This makes it prohibitively expensive to furlough.
On the date of corporate closure you will see an intermingling of routes -- still with separate operating certificates. For instance, the SLC-CDG route will more than likely be flown with a ("NWA") A330 in Delta colors flown by the NWA side of the house. Look for a lot of "right-sizing" -- up to 50% of the international markets.
The single operating certificate will be 12-18 months later.
There will be a flow-back for any furloughees -- that includes Delta pilots.
The original no-furlough clause in the current DAL PWA mentioning Troy Kane will remain unchanged, I believe. They can furlough up to but not including him without removing seats from the 76 seaters.
The Delta pilot's equity will not be diluted to account for the NWA pilots' equity.
Or so I heard.
