I've remained silent as long as I can. No disrespect is intended toward anyone here, in anything I'm about to say.
Delta people are, by and large, infected with the notion that Parker is as evil and rotten as they come ... that basically, he makes Lorenzo look like a teddy bear. Is he perfect? HELL, NO! But he ain't as bad as the KDMD crowd likes to make it seem. He brought back HP from the brink after 9/11, and after two bankruptcies and drain-circling ad infinitum, he did the HP/US merger and has turned the combined airline in to a profitable, sustainable entity. (And Max, check a timetable. 16 cities in Europe, to be 19 this coming summer. Second only to AA in the Caribbean. This is not a regional with Airbuses by any stretch.) How many others of the Big Six are going to pay profit-sharing this year?
Have the employees taken it in the tail? Sure. But truth be told, most of the crap the US East employees have taken came during two bankruptcies before the post-merger management team arrived. Most of that is from the Wolf/Gangwal/Siegel/Lakefield cabal. I think there are still effigies in the hangar.
Employees aren't going to get anywhere bitching and moaning about all they've lost ... it sucks, I know. But it is what it is, and the best way forward is to concentrate on making the industry stable, and consolidation is the way to do that.
Now, the meat of the merger ... the creditors. They'll be making the decision about whether this ultimately happens or not. And they care about one thing ... losing as little money as possible. The creditors committee hired Gordon Bethune to assist in analyzing this proposal. Gordo met with Parker & Co. recently ... the result of that meeting was this increased offer. Read between the lines, folks. The creditors are counting their money, and the revised offer means they'll get more cents on the dollar than a REASONABLE estimate of DL's standalone plan, and they'll get it sooner. That's where the rubber meets the road.
So where does that leave us? At the Justice Department. One of the shuttles will have to be sold. Perhaps some gate space at LGA (the MAT?), maybe an LGW slot or two. But this argument that all competition would vanish? Poppycock. Do you know how many nonstop markets that currently have competition would, if this thing goes through, have none? TWO. That's right, TWO. TWO. TWO. TWO. TWO. PHL-CVG and CLT-CVG. That's it. End of list.
All this concern about small airports in the Southeast with only US and DL service? (FLO, FAY, and the like.) Anybody who lives in those places will tell you that fares are no bargain on either airline, competition or no. And US Airways has been cutting fares in competition-free markets since the HP merger ... places like HTS and MDT, where there isn't much competition, and none from the LCCs.
Don't anybody call me a Kool-Aid drinker. I've read all the Kool-Aid from both sides ... I've read DeltaNet and KDMD from that side of the house. I've read TheHub and BABA from the other side. I've seen the facts, I've seen the exaggerations and stretched truths. I've applied my Mark One Human Brain to the situation and made my own analysis. I'm not sipping anybody's Kool-Aid. I just call 'em like I see 'em.
