Sir Richard Branson reaffirms commitment to re-start VX if AS kills the brand
#16
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SEA, NW/DL 1.6Million Miler
Programs: DL 1MM Annual Silver,AS 100K 22-24, AS 75K 15-21
Posts: 4,278
Jiburi
#17
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 863
The Delta pilot contract forbids domestic code shares with a exception for Alaska on aircraft with over 76 seats. The Alaska exception was inherited from NWA however is dying a natural death. I suspect it would be a fight to the death if management tried to get another exception.
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,389
There's a reason why DL pulled out of those markets; they aren't big enough to support hubs for anything other than an LCC (MSP is a top 20 metro area by population, CVG and MEM aren't). SRB isn't going to start VX 2.0 as a FR/NK/G4/F9 knockoff. That's not his deal.
And as for DL pulling out of MSP to give it to SRB... it will never happen. Never. Never in a million billion years. There is exactly zero reason for a profitable and well run airline to shrink out of a solid fortress hub, to give traffic to a competitor starting up an airline (it would be corporate malfeasance and shareholder lawsuit time- there is no good reason for you to assist a competitor like that). There is a better chance that SRB will send me a check for a couple hundred million for no good reason. Let's speculate on why he'd do that. Makes about as much sense...
#20
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,389