I'm pretty confident there won't be any liquidation before next summer. Delta ponies up the cash to keep us around simply because there's no possible way they can take that big of a loss of airframes over night. The airframes can defintiely be very easily transfered to ExpressJet/Skywest and some to GoooooooooJET since they are both already 200/900 operators but they would still need to hire a couple thousandish pilots to staff.
Delta will keep us around a little while longer. If we get scared and give up our contract then they'll just get a better deal out of it. Ultimately though we lose no matter what.
I think the problems pinnacle corp face go much further than pay/ money now. As they have done away with pensions, retirement, pay and longevity incentives, they have driven the loyalty out of the employees. The MX staff, SOC, flight attendants etc. in reality have very little brand loyalty. I don't think spanjers is the guy to rally the troops so to say.
Pilots taking a 30% pay cut would make nearly the same on unemployment. Facing further downsizing, and what is likely no possibility to get out of a bankruptcy contract in the future doesn't inspire loyalty or effort.
You already see the effect of people "checking out". MX reliability is in the tank, soc, scheduling etc just don't care.
I think this whole process has been mismanaged so badly, that it might not be feasible to meet performance requirements, and delta may happily just transition the rest of the flying over the next few months. Winter is traditionally a low load time of year, and, would be the ideal time to phase out a company.
Keep in mind, I'm on the outside looking in, but, I just don't see anything that resembles a company that's getting it's costs an operation under control.
