The best defense is a good offense

because it is larger... and at a lower margin of 12.8%. Special charges chewed up a large part of that merger... $500M plus or minus (who really counts with those kinds of numbers)

AA's

Second quarter 2014 GAAP net profit was a record $864 million

DL's

On a GAAP basis which includes special items, Delta's pre-tax income was $1.3 billion, operating margin was 14.9 percent and net income was $801 million, or $0.94 per diluted share.

can you explain for us how AA's Latin RASM decrease was larger than DL.

that is a question JUST FOR YOU. For the ACTIVE AA people, job well done.