I'm sure the 6600 ex-Pan Am employees consider themselves far better off than the TWA employees and their network which has been almost entirely gutted from the AA system. DL's JFK and NE Shuttle operation is far larger than anything AA acquired from any of its mergers or even if its post-deregulation era internal growth attempts. In fact, DL's presence at JFK over the past decade has grown by 80% more flights while AA has reduced flights by 27%.
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While it busts your crotch to admit it, DL has indeed maintained the vast majority of the western merger. SLC is larger than it ever was with Western. Come to think of it, DL has more of its west coast presence today than AA does a decade later. Last I checked, it was SFO-HNL and BOS that was biting the dust to finish off AA's non-hub presence in northern CA - how many years after the SJC hub folded.
Not sure why are worried about what DL dumped but apparently they have found plenty of new markets to replace what they chose not to fly, something AA apparently could not do.
Wanna see the numbers?
AA's flights to/from California down 63% while DL is flat.
AA's seats to/from CA down 47% while DL is flat.
AA's ASMs to/from CA down 27% while DL's are up 21%.
For LAX alone, AA is smaller in flights and seats but slightly higher in ASMs while DL is larger by 40-100% in every category.
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So not only has DL's acquired hubs at both JFK and SLC grown, so has its presence to/from California including California.
In contrast, AA's California presence is half the size it was a decade ago and only AA's DFW and MIA hubs have grown while ORD and JFK are smaller than they were a decade ago.... and those three post-deregulation era AA hubs in SJC, BNA, and RDU plus that acquired hub at STL - well let's just say they went the way of the dodo bird.
DL has indeed grown its acquired hubs.
