FIN;
On the AE front. There will be a few before SOC. The million dollar question is whether there will be bases for us in the current NWA bases, and NWA bases in our current bases. It goes with out saying that a lot of our lift is going to be shifted here in the next six months. They are trying to figure out the details of how to do it. If they do an AE with 7ER in DTW, MSP and SEA I am sure that SEA will be senior and DTW and MSP would go junior.
Likewise, I am sure that the NWA guys would jump on an ATL 744 bid. Needless to say there are interesting times ahead.
They are trying to delay the current AE as long as possible so that there can be some significant backfill on it. The longer the better.
Also they have finalized the summer 09 schedule. Now they are going to all of the department heads to see if they can support it. We stated yes, but we would need to hire for it. Stay tuned. The DGS guys think that we will hire in late fall, the others, early next year. Either way there should be new guys coming in before SOC. If this happens on both sides it is a good thing for all of us.