are you truly out of your mind?
You honestly consider it acceptable to give up 6 points of market share in the largest travel market for US carriers?
If DL can be profitable and AA cannot, then there is something seriously wrong with AA. And if DL can generate nearly $3B in profits in 2013 with expectations for the number to grow in 2014 and still lose money in NYC, then DL has some highly profitable hubs someplace that are paying the freight.
I didn't say that you, swamt, said that DL couldn't challenge the DOJ.... others have... and if I directed that to you, my apologies.
Yes, DL wants those gates and I'm still not convinced the door is shut. Even if it is, the evidence is OVERWHELMING that DL is capable of winning in markets against AA and WN. Obviously if DL can't fly from DAL, DL can't win in a market they can't serve but they can certainly continue to expand at DFW - and I fully expect them to do so.
Since neither WN or VX have announced or said they intend to fly to MSP or DTW, the chances that they will become a major player in a market which DL serves nonstop from DFW is slim.
Further, if VX leaves DFW, it only makes it that much easier for DL to grow there.
Remember, from the very beginning, the intent of this whole exercise was to reduce AA's strength in the market, not WN's which I always said would grow.
sit tight for an announcement of DL's next steps.
As for where AA was for the last six years, that is precisely why I said they were losing valuable ground that they would not regain. The divestiture process further validates that AA is not going to be near as strong as they could have been if they too had gone thru BK when other carriers did and merged with anyone other than US which has created so much overlap that the whole divestiture process became necessary.