When Delta announced new nonstop flights between New York/JFK and US Airways’ hometown of Phoenix the day after US Airways announced its takeover intentions, it seemed like a coincidence to me. After today’s events though, I’m starting to get suspicious.
This evening, shortly after the US Airways team made their formal presentation to Delta management, Delta turned around and said “I don’t wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!” Translation for the non-Monty Python fans out there . . . “You might be able to take us over, but we can make vain, money-losing, and futile attempts to tell you that we don’t like you.”
I think futile really is the right word here, but hopefully I’m wrong. The airline announced new nonstop service from its hub in Salt Lake City to the major US Airways hub of Charlotte. A single daily flight starts on March 1.
Can the timing of these announcements really be coincidental? At this point, I doubt it. Delta employees are really not happy that US Airways is trying to take over their airline, and apparently the best they can do is start filing schedules (SSIM files) for flights to US Airways hubs.
I do hope this is just a coincidence for Delta’s sake, and that they really have determined that this is the best use of that aircraft time. If it’s not, then US Airways has an even stronger case supporting its ability to create additional value in a takeover. An airline has a responsibility to make the best business decisions possible at all times. There is no room for someone at Delta to be making a statement by placing an airplane somewhere when it could be making more money elsewhere. I really hope that’s not what’s happening here.
