Kev,
Just because DL non-contract employees have benefitted because of gains made by the pilot group doesn't mean they have or will attain the SAME gains.
And to repeat, I don't think non-contract employees will receive the same gains in return for them allowing changes to scope.
I don't have the numbers on hand, but I would strongly bet that DL pilots gave up a lot more in BK compared to non-contract employees, even after equity in the reorganized company is factored in.
Eagle,
the problem is that it will be impossible to upgauge capacity to multiple hubs and still keep frequencies high enough to maintain a competitive advantage in a market. There are many markets by multiple carriers where there are 300-500 seats/day in a market to a major hub using RJs today. If that same number of seats were reallocated to even the 717, which DL says will seat 110 pax in their config, then there would only be 3 flights/day which is not going to be competitive with other carriers that will still offer 5-6 flights per day even with a combination of large RJs. Remember AA is pushing for 86 (IIRC) seat RJs which means they could potentially serve a market with 4 large RJs to 3 mainline by DL. Even after the whole 50 seat era has ended, there will still be a need for a/c smaller than 110 seats - and the 717 will probably still be the smallest mainline aircraft among the US network carrier fleet.
What DL and ALPA are doing to help eliminate the possibility of just upgauging every market to 76 seat RJs is allowing only 70 more large RJs even though several hundred 50 seaters will be removed, limited where large RJs can fly (didn't exist before), limited how long the flights on large RJs can be, and tied DCI capacity to DL capacity (which didn't exist before).
Everyone would love to say all air service would be provided by mainline aircraft - but that ship sailed decades ago when the first regional carrier flew with a mainline code on it.
I'm not saying the DL TA is perfect but it does appear that it recognizes that the industry is changing and is part of a SHIFT of capacity back to mainline. When you consider that other carriers have been GROWING regional carrier capacity at much faster rates than DL has done (DL has kept DCI capacity flat relative to mainline capacity for several years), then DL is already ahead of the rest of the industry in limiting codesharing on regional carriers.
The 717 will work well because of DL's size in the domestic market and its concentration in the eastern US where there are dozens of airports where DL boards a couple thousand passengers per day and where those cities need to be connected to at least ATL, DTW, and NYC. Add in the potential for DL to grow in the west using a smaller aircraft and I think there will be plenty of opportunities to use the 717.
It is the very low ownership costs that make the 717 a workable solution.
As some have noted, bringing in the 717s is leading DL to upgrade the cockpits in the M88s and non-glass M90s and opens the door for DL to acquire even more M90s which can also be acquired very cheaply. Between the 717s and M90s DL is probably acquiring 150 10 year old aircraft with modern fuel burn for less than $1B. IN contrast, the 100 739ERs (larger aircraft for sure) will cost about $5B and DL is reportedly getting a very good deal on them.