No, I said that the legal basis for what the DOJ did with the AA-US divestiture process is questionable because the DOJ is attempting to reshape the industry based on its desire to see low fare carriers maintain a larger share, particularly in the NE slot controlled airports.
I continue to believe that the DOJ does not have the legal right to pick winners and losers in any industry based on their desire to affect pricing in a deregulated industry, which the US domestic airline industry is.
They can try to maximize the number of competitors in a market and the number of seats which LFCs tend to do with each slot by using larger aircraft on average (no regional jets except for B6's 100 seat E190s).
Even if all of that is true, it completely argues against telling DL they can't serve DAL and instead give the gates to WN. There is absolutely no basis for arguing that the DOJ's goal is to increase competition at LGA and DCA and then turn around and limit it at DAL. No basis whatsoever for the logic that is being pushed.
That still doesn't mean that DL will file lawsuit nor does it mean they won't. The process is not over. And even if DL walks away with nothing, they may consider that the political cost of suing the DOJ is too high based on future issues that might arise with the government. As much as you want to argue otherwise, DL has managed to maintain decent relationships with the government as evidenced in part by winning a number of route cases including HND that others said DL shouldn't win.
Further, it is possible - and very likely - that there will be small and medium sized communities that end up w/ a loss of service after the slot divestiture is completed and DL might very well succeed at having new slots created at DCA to restore that service - with DL and UA being the only two that are given the potential to bid. Hard to say, but the story is far from finished and the idea that the legislators that will lose service are just going to sit back anymore than DL will over time is more than stretch.
Finally, the real purpose of all of these slots and gates is to win in the marketplace. If DL has a plan B that allows them to do that, then that is the real answer, not how many slots or gates any carrier accumulates. It is also very likely that DL will turn its competitive attention to other key markets or to restructure its own DCA operations as well as those in the cities with gate divestitures to achieve its strategic goals.
I'm not ruling anything in or out but there have been way too many people who have tried to prove that I said DL would definitely file suit when I never said that. The real measurement is what happens in the months and years after the divestiture process and in the markets that are involved.