It's not looking good for Delta

Better use those Skymiles soon.

Since leaving bankruptcy, oh, what was it, six months ago? Delta's stock has been cut in half, from $20 to $10. It announced it's offering buyout packages to about half its workforce (30,000) and it's cutting service to Orlando by 45 percent. (Hey, all those people going to see Mickey Mouse need to get there somehow.)

It's tough to see this one still flying a year from now unless the pilots reconsider the offer to merge with Northwest. I guess they'd rather have no job than a decent-paying one.

 

Given the perfectly-understandable seniority concerns of experienced pilots working for legacy carriers, arranging mergers between the majors is as impossible as brokering peace in the Middle East. There's no solution that doesn't piss someone off, royally.

 

Well, if it's a choice of being pissed off and collecting unemployment or being pissed off and having a job and a paycheck, after much deliberation, my decision would be to go with B.

I understand that if you've worked for a company for 20 years and you've built up seniority, a pension, etc., you want to keep what you can. But at the same time you're risking that if things go bad, really bad, you can end up with nada. I like to gamble as much as the next guy, but I'm not going all-in with my future.

 

And yet, Delta is playing hardball with Northwest in the merger talks...