I far from believe that the 717's are here to stay.. I said that from day one, they are obviously not a fit for the SWA plan seeing as they've eliminated so many 717 routes already. So, I don't know where you got the idea that I was going against what GK said other than the "we'll pay for them and not fly them" idea. I highly doubt SWA got to where it's at by NOT flying airplanes, especially if they're profitable and not on such a strenuous MX inspection internal like the -300's are... You know, the 500 hour crowns and re-skin. That's rough!! Never the less, the schedule for converting A/C's is on SWAlife so you can look for yourself where I did the conversion math. It's not denial by any means, it's just today's hard fact that I base it off of..
On a side note, you DAL guys have some pretty good supervisors over there. A couple of guys, Chris and i can't remember the other ones name, are in MCO right now kinda overseeing our SOC transition which has gone pretty smooth I might say, The paperwork and logbook is actually pretty easy, but's it's a shame that you're eliminating the Land Verify RTS and the auto land RTS from the system as you convert. They are very good and useful systems, but instead, SWA has opted for the HGS system and downgrade the fleet from Autoland to CAT III status. All well, just less work for me I suppose.