Some NWA facts for the General

[DTW320]

Accents - no southern drawls here, Billy Joe Jim Bob

Hey, what about us NWA boys livin down South and commutin to the great white north?

DTW320
(Not named Billy, Joe, Jim or Bob)

 

[Superpilot92]

Now if we could get rid of the hat during this whole mess, I think it might be worth it. That would be awesome!!

On a side note, does it really matter what you bring to the table if Delta is the one doing the buying?

Well everyone assumes just because DAL came out first and said hey we are interested in a potential merger that that means they are Buying. Just because they pulled the trigger on announcing the desire to consolidate doesnt mean that they have a big blank check. IF it happens it will be a merger with paper and stock swap. IMHO

 

[johnsonrod]

nwaredtail,

Wow, you sound pretty defensive. It's true that MSP and DTW are great hubs for you guys, and you have a fantastic Asian network, but beyond that, everything is mediocre. No West Coast presence. Small Southeast presence in MEM. Not much activity in the Northeast where a huge portion of the US population lives. Europe relies heavily upon KLM (which is a good alliance).

Nice to see that you are impressed with NWA's margins. Your profit numbers will continue to improve as you add lower-cost E175s to replace gas-guzzling Diesel 9s. Of course, that's not so great for your pilot group when you think about it... It's called outsourcing.

Who knows if a merger will actually take place? The DOJ could easily nix the entire deal. Even Oberstar is negative about it (convenient that he is from Minnesota). However, if you really think about it, a combined Delta and NWA (after the inevitable nasty integration) would be a powerhouse. The route network would be the best in the world with strong Asia, strong Europe, strong domestic US, strong South America and growing Africa (maybe that will be a good market someday). Sure, a hub or two might have to be reduced, but probably not by much - MEM/CVG would be the question mark in my mind. Regardless, other hubs don't touch each other and would probably coexist - MSP, DTW, ATL, LAX, JFK, SLC, etc. Not sure how the regional feed would work out because you probably wouldn't need so many different feeders. The combined carrier could probably negotiated better terms with the remaining regionals to guarantee access to more combined feed - that would be cheaper for the combined legacy (but not so good for regional pilots like me).

So, quit being so negative. We have no control over the situation. We can all sit here and speculate but nobody knows what will happen. Again, the DOJ could easily say no and stop everything. One thing is for certain, those 787s would look great in Delta colors...

 

[Superpilot92]

nwaredtail,

Wow, you sound pretty defensive. It's true that MSP and DTW are great hubs for you guys, and you have a fantastic Asian network, but beyond that, everything is mediocre. No West Coast presence. Small Southeast presence in MEM. Not much activity in the Northeast where a huge portion of the US population lives. Europe relies heavily upon KLM (which is a good alliance).

Nice to see that you are impressed with NWA's margins. Your profit numbers will continue to improve as you add lower-cost E175s to replace gas-guzzling Diesel 9s. Of course, that's not so great for your pilot group when you think about it... It's called outsourcing.

Who knows if a merger will actually take place? The DOJ could easily nix the entire deal. Even Oberstar is negative about it (convenient that he is from Minnesota). However, if you really think about it, a combined Delta and NWA (after the inevitable nasty integration) would be a powerhouse. The route network would be the best in the world with strong Asia, strong Europe, strong domestic US, strong South America and growing Africa (maybe that will be a good market someday). Sure, a hub or two might have to be reduced, but probably not by much - MEM/CVG would be the question mark in my mind. Regardless, other hubs don't touch each other and would probably coexist - MSP, DTW, ATL, LAX, JFK, SLC, etc. Not sure how the regional feed would work out because you probably wouldn't need so many different feeders. The combined carrier could probably negotiated better terms with the remaining regionals to guarantee access to more combined feed - that would be cheaper for the combined legacy (but not so good for regional pilots like me).

So, quit being so negative. We have no control over the situation. We can all sit here and speculate but nobody knows what will happen. Again, the DOJ could easily say no and stop everything. One thing is for certain, those 787s would look great in Delta colors...

Not possible with the current contract. Its easy to talk out of your rear when you dont do the research needed to post accurately. I will just suggest you get your facts right before you post your opinion and present it as fact. I agree that we shouldn't be arguing about this because in the end our Opinions dont mean much. However IF it happens we have a big say in our futures when we are 1 HUGE pilot group.

 

[Noserider76]

The best thing that could happen is no merger. If it has to happen, United looks like a much better partner to me.

The government isn't going to rubber stamp this thing like the greedy managers think and it's going to be a bitch for the employees. I hated the -9 when I worked at NWA and certainly don't want to see it at DL.

 

[johnsonrod]

Not possible with the current contract. Its easy to talk out of your rear when you dont do the research needed to post accurately. I will just suggest you get your facts right before you post your opinion and present it as fact. I agree that we shouldn't be arguing about this because in the end our Opinions dont mean much. However IF it happens we have a big say in our futures when we are 1 HUGE pilot group.

Oh, so you don't have any E175s?

How many E175s do you currently have? Are you getting any more in the short term? Are you also retiring DC9s? That's what I mean you dipstick. Reducing costs while maintaining some capacity. I'm sure that helps the bottom line. You're getting defensive and that's understandable.

 

[johnsonrod]

The best thing that could happen is no merger. If it has to happen, United looks like a much better partner to me.

The government isn't going to rubber stamp this thing like the greedy managers think and it's going to be a bitch for the employees. I hated the -9 when I worked at NWA and certainly don't want to see it at DL.

UAL's value is the Asian routes. There are too many hub overlaps for the domestic part to work - SLC/DEN, LAX, JFK, numerous redundant transcon and JFK-Europe routes. No way the Feds would ever allow that with reduced competition and likely higher fares for customers.

UAL could potentially unload the Asian routes to Delta to raise cash because it's dismal financial state and lack of growth is more obvious. You never know what can happen...

 

[Floatplane]

Whatever!

 

[Noserider76]

UAL's value is the Asian routes. There are too many hub overlaps for the domestic part to work - SLC/DEN, LAX, JFK, numerous redundant transcon and JFK-Europe routes. No way the Feds would ever allow that with reduced competition and likely higher fares for customers.

UAL could potentially unload the Asian routes to Delta to raise cash because it's dismal financial state and lack of growth is more obvious. You never know what can happen...

I disagree. SLC-DEN might be the only real overlap. DL has been trying to build a hub at LAX and doesn't have much overlap with United there. LAX would be almost a perfect match and would give the company a great north-south route structure on both coasts.

United is not that big a player at JFK and the company would be plenty large enough to support hubs at IAD and JFK. ORD would be a crown jewel for the world's largest airline. The resulting fleet would be much better as well. The only question is the amount of debt the combined company would have and of course the regulators. United-Delta is almost a perfect fit in every way.

 

[Superpilot92]

Oh, so you don't have any E175s?

How many E175s do you currently have? Are you getting any more in the short term? Are you also retiring DC9s? That's what I mean you dipstick. Reducing costs while maintaining some capacity. I'm sure that helps the bottom line. You're getting defensive and that's understandable.

Not getting defensive at all, i was just saying get your facts right before you present your opinion as fact. The regional feeders have a cap on the number of aircraft that can fly as a nwa feeder. there are only 18 aircraft that can, per the contract, be ordered from here on out. After that no regional can be awarded more aircraft UNTIL NWA gets Net Growth aircraft, not replacements. Therefore your comment on the E-175s replacing the DC9s cant happen. Have some of the E-175 replaced some 9 flying? Yes. The big difference in this and other carriers is that those E-175s are job protection for NWA pilots. While its not good to have bigger planes fly at the regionals at least they are capped out after the next 18 aircraft. Bottom line here is that You will not see Compass keep getting more and more aircraft while NWA just retires all the 9's like you portray,dipstick

:beer:

 

[General Lee]

Just so you know that NWA brings wayyyy more to the party than DAL.

Fortress Hubs - MSP,DTW,NRT - We own the two domestic hubs. Just a little competition in ATL huh?

Profit margins - 12% vs. 9% at DAL. 25% better

Profits- about the same last quarter, even though NWA is 30% smaller.

Debt - about 3.0 billion less at NWA. Didn't your boys know what Bankrupcty is for?

CAL golden share - guess we will tell them who they can merge with.

Midwest airlines - nice of us to have prevented your biggest domestic competition from growing huh?

Uniforms - no sailor uniforms ( yup, looks great on you if you weigh 150 lbs) and Polish Military Hats.

787 orders and options- looks like you guys will be waiting longer than we will.

Accents - no southern drawls here, Billy Joe Jim Bob

Flight Kits - come on, Nascar? Its really not the national pasttime.

Finally - You do know that there are not too many NWA pilots that dreamed of being a DAL pilot, right?

Signed:

Proud former DC-9 pilot

Wow. Stunning. Wow. Well OKAY then..... I guess I will try to retort...


1. Yes, you own MSP and DTW, and you transport Fedex pilots around the nation from MEM. Wow. Snowtown, Mo-town, and No-town. You have successfully kept LCC competition down in those towns---except for Sun Country and Spirit. Are they a big impact? Not really. Airtran tried to get MKE, and since you couldn't beat Midwest, you bought them with some rich friends at the TPG. You suggest that we had a choice at ATL, since Eastern had a large presence there and then died. What can I say? We grabbed as many gates as we could, but Valujet started up, stopped, and then started up again. We still own 70% of the traffic at the World's busiest airport. MSP and DTW--what are they? Are they in the top twenty in the world for pax and movements? ATL tops both categories. Well, you do get to use more de-ice at those airports! Good for you.

2. Profit margins. You may be right about the numbers, but ours have actually increased 100% in the last 2 years thanks to the new guy running the revenue department. We are getting better.

3. Proifits. We are starting to park unprofitable RJs in large chunks, which will eventually boost profits. You are starting to park DC9-30s. Oh wait, you recinded that rumor, right? Maybe?

4. Debt. We had more debt originally, and did very well bringing it down from around $20 billion to $7.5 billion. Sorry that wasn't good enough for you. If this actually all goes down, we will have more debt after BUYING you. Then you will share our debt. Fun times.

5. Golden Share. I guess they can actually buy someone without telling you. You can say if they MERGE with someone, but they can still go out and buy United, for $1.

6. Midwest. Yes, you couldn't beat them, you were scared to death of Airtran, so you and your rich friends at TPG bought them. So what is Airtran doing about it? They have acquired 4 gates at MKE so far, added flights to FLA and out West, and are looking for more. Midwest is not doing as well as you would think right now, and just announced their regional is stopping service (SkyWay), and SkyWest is bringing in profitable 50 seaters. Good for you guys. Also, isn't the gov't now looking into that purchase of yours again? I think they are. Maybe Airtran will get what they wanted after all....

7. Uniforms. I don't think you should brag about yours. At least we look GOOD in ours, according to every hot girl that winks at me in the terminal, and those 4 guys.....?

8. 787s. When are you going to get them again? Boeing announced what today? Good luck with that. We are getting bigger and newer planes too--the 777LRs. They have the range of a 787, but can carry more people and cargo. Is the 787 bigger than an A330? Your A330 pays less than our 757/767. Where are your 747-200s going?? You are losing 747-200s, and DC9s currently. You just lost your large DHL contract to fly Cargo to Asia, but you are still looking for a replacement. Hmmm. Your 747-400s will probably replace your 742s in the cargo arena, leaving your 787s and A330s to fly pax. When I am flying my 777LR and I see one of your A330s or 787s, I will say "I've got the light twin in sight."

9. No accents in MSP or DTW? Why do people up there say "A boat" instead of About? "It's a boat 4 degrees here, eh." And you hockey studs all have wonderful teeth. "Go OAT and sit on the frozen lake and fish with some beers eh..."

10. And, I don't think any Delta pilots cherish MSP or DTW layovers, unless you count me--since I want to rap on the 8-mile road, and get de-iced myself at 6am in the frozen tundra of MSP. Those trips are our most junior.



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[bleagle]

Then...why is DAL trying to merge?

 

[General Lee]

I disagree. SLC-DEN might be the only real overlap. DL has been trying to build a hub at LAX and doesn't have much overlap with United there. LAX would be almost a perfect match and would give the company a great north-south route structure on both coasts.

United is not that big a player at JFK and the company would be plenty large enough to support hubs at IAD and JFK. ORD would be a crown jewel for the world's largest airline. The resulting fleet would be much better as well. The only question is the amount of debt the combined company would have and of course the regulators. United-Delta is almost a perfect fit in every way.

Delta doesn't have much overlap with United in LA? Really? JFK, BOS, MCO, DEN, SFO, HNL, OGG, KOA and LIH(starting in June), OAK, SJC, SEA, PDX, YVR, SJD, PHX, TUS, GUA, SLC, and MSY.

As far as hubs and overlap, do you need that much feed into IAD and JFK? Doesn't UAL get mainline feed from the West Coast and FLA for those European Connections? Doesn't DL do the same to and from JFK? Would we need both? I doubt it. Not a good fit.

What about ORD being close to CVG? Would CVG survive? Nobody talks about that one.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[General Lee]

Then...why is DAL trying to merge?

It would be a good fit for round the World coverage. Any business pax would be able to do one stop shopping. But, NWAredtail thinks NWA is king with no problems. Hey, we all have some problems. Would we be a good fit as a merger or acquisition? I think it would be the best fit IF WE HAD TO MERGE. It is a BOAT the best we could do if we had to.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[JoeMerchant]

NWA pilots will have to learn how to ask for wind checks and "how long's the final"......