Originally Posted by
TravellingSalesman
this may be a naive question, but if that's true, why not give DL only MSP and LAX and DFW to AA? Another US gateway served, too.
DoT converted all the existing nighttime slots to daytime. All airlines also had to prioritize their requested routes and they all put their existing routes as their top pick. DL and AA were already both flying LAX-HND at night, so in essence it only left the 5th slot up for grabs. And LA has enough O&D to support three flights (including ANA).