good morning, everybody. welcome sto "squawk box" on s cnbc we are live on the marketsite in times square u.s. futures are indicated up. s&p 500 up by 3.5. nasdaq up by just over 11 of a modest day of gains yesterday after the feds decided not to move take a look at treasury yields, you'll see the 10-year looks like it is yielding just above 1.8% a little below where we were yesterday morning. >> some big news, shares of saudi aramco have surged now on

the second day of trading. i should say they've surged again pushing the ipo to that $2 trillion market cap that is nearly a trillion higher than the next largest companies, microsoft and apple. the valuation will be seen as a win for the crowned prince relying mostly on local investors after the company canceled overseas road shows in london and new york. >> we should point out, that is a market valuation >> theoretically, it is the market cap but no company is a real market cap. >> but because it is such a small portion of shares being traded, you have to look at that >> in the dot com bubble, if you ever needed to sell all the shares that went into the market

cap, none of those things were ever at two and three billion. >> when you are talking about so such a small market. >> who knows >> part of the whole effort here has simply been to try to get to this $2 trillion >> hard to get your head around. >> i don't see mbs or the saudis doing anything unethical in the stock market the moral high ground they always like to take as witnessed from the last -- when did that happen >> two years ago too >> do they turn us off in the kingdom when we talk about that? >> i'm sure this is the next step as opposed to putting a

body out where nobody will ever find it again. didn't they say they sprinkled his body in a garden >> that might be right >> maybe with jimmy hofa somewhere. >> i want to be hopeful. >> that the stock goes higher. >> that this is a transformation we've talked about that country very skeptically with very good reason we'd like to be an optimist. i hope this does shift >> it is hypocritical to hold the saudis to a higher standard than all these other countries like north korea, china with the uighurs. >> we talk more about saudi arabia than those. >> there is a good reason. did you drive to work?

>> you mean fossil fuels >> where is your hover board oh, you are a millennial i heard from many people who said we wear lululemon too it is tough love for me. it is. look, i'm much closer mentally to a 15-year-old to where i am >> yes >> i may even be better with the generation zer i'm down there >> i know. >> on today's agenda, i got something really exciting coming up as ron vera have you noticed on the jumbo player how cool that is. it is navarro. >> it is not all the letters

>> it is he splits it up. it is beautiful. you've got two as, two rs. it is an anagram i'm sure you thought of that you know what it is like, vivian dark bloom on today's agenda, the ecb will release the latest policy decision followed by the first news conference under new ecb president lagarde. economists don't expect changes to the policy set by draghi. we'll focus on any hints we are going to have full coverage of that news conference starting at 8:30 a.m. eastern. i'm always uncomfortable knowing too much about lolita, that

book >> they taught it in school. >> he grew up speaking russian he wrote one of the greatest novels in english. it is sick >> i know it james mason. an update now on the trade talks with china as the december 15 deadline approaches overnight, saying the u.s. and china remain in close communication. you look at the count down, two days, 17 minutes, 53 seconds sources say president trump will immediate today. expected to attend, robert lighthizer, steven mnuchin, kudlow and peter navarro ahead of that meeting, circulating talking points down playing the repercussions of a

tariff hike that it will at least not be painful to u.s. >> i didn't think he was making that case in the pro tariff narrative under his sud owe anytime ron vara he says in court duties are working to defend the economy and have had no negative impact. he says tariffs spur growth but i am proving net exports in the gdp ee kwaks he argues that the white house should, quote, get uncertainty out of the market by announcing no deal until after the election and ride the tariffs to victory. >> this is now political right? >> he's going to make this case. there are people that don't want to do it to ride it for the election? >> for the election and because you are not going to get what

you need and they won't do it anyway >> so you are going to lose. >> if you are not going to make progress, it is seen as backing down >> it is not going to hurt it is not the reason for doing it if you have four more years to take a hard line, you might accomplish something be positive, andrew. we shouldn't take this lying down for me, i would not like to be >> depends on believing he's still going to be the president. >> yeah. hillary might get in that's what bannon thinks. >> i have your anogram ken rem. i do not want to be restrained i want to pick a really cool one. >> carlos dagger

>> carlos danger, which is much cooler he was dangerous to everyone around him, including the clinton campaign what was mitt romney's, he had a really stupid one too. he was tweeting under. it just happened two weeks ago i tried remember i can't remember but i'm going to look it up. it was a lame one. this, anybody, you could figure that out he wasn't trying to hide behind it you are ken ren. >> that's not bad. who? so stupid. he could be french pierre pierre de lexa >> when we come back, fed chair jay powell making the case for patiences in the final fed meeting of the year. >> we try to look through the

volatility of trade news and negotiations monetary policy is not the right tool to react in the very short term to volatility and things that can change back and forth as this has happened >> the market watcher will join us to see how investors have been thinking about these signals. we'll be right back. ♪ when you move homes, you move more than just yourself.

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>> the final policy meeting of the year held the federal reserve steady speaking after that rate decision was announced fed chair jay powell outlined the case for patience >> we do believe monetary policy operates with long and varyable lags it will take time before those actions are seen in the economy. that will take some time that is one reason to hold back and wait >> he said in order to move

rates higher, he would need to see significant move higher. >> joining now is mark grant chief strategist good to see you. >> great to see you, becky what do we do with this? fed says it is probably not going anywhere for a long time i think they think the next move will be higher what do you think? >> i think the fed is in a locked up decision for a couple of reasons one, the economy is doing well that there is no inflation two, the ecb, we have almost $16 trillion of negatively yielding debt that puts a lot of pressure on the united states to not raise rates. and third, we have the political turmoil going on i say right now, the 10-year is at 1.8%. this is a borrowers paradise and

hell for fixed income investors. yesterday, at cornell talking about reallocating their assets. it is very difficult when there is no yield to figure out quite what to do >> what is the solution? do they need to push further out on the risk? that is one of the things that they are doing a lot of mistakes will get made for that in the closed in funds >> talk to you about that. there is almost no place in the market even to find this yield even one of the main indices for a high yield is 1.4% >> we are looking at the yield

and it almost fell we saw it pushup past that i guess this is the reaction to what the fed says, which is, okay rates are going nowhere. what does that tell you about the stock market will it make it more attractive to stocks just as an alternative to low yields in treasuries. >> one of the reasons the stock market is so low now, it pushed pension funds and university and retirees out of the fixed income markets and pushed them into morris beingy band of the equity market >> the weird story last week, was it a monday, reporting about how much money has been pulled out of the market by investors that means stocks could still

pushup from here >> i think the valuations are high i think we are a little topee. not calling for a drop off i feel like after the huge run we've had. it was a great year for bonds and equities everything performed we are heading to the end of that cycle it is going to be an interesting year i expect returns next year equities and debt will yield a lot. >> think about the great stocks that are yielders. this is the whole graham and dot reason i looked at three. chevron, up 8% you have principal risk because stocks can go down obviously right. but they go down maybe earnings go down because

of a recession that keeps rates low. there is a lot they'll like in those even for -- if you pick 20 of them, so you don't have at&t specific problems or oil problems you pick 20 yielders and instead of principal risk, you may get capital appreciation isn't that a way to go >> that is a way to go, a decent way to go. the other thing we are saying is most the time when we are looking at yields, we are looking at relative value of one thing to another rates are so low, the major insurance companies, they can't afford to buy public bonds they can't afford so you are seeing a big shift not so much out of equities but in the private equity and placements. >> if you don't think we are bubbly here in the market, if

you look at those alternative inve investments, are they getting bubbly there are so many investors forced into them >> as interest rates are this low and you go from 5% to 1.8%, it is great for real estate and all kinds of assets. because of the borrowing costs we see more stock buy backs. as we approach zero, we start losing value and going from 1.8 to 1.4 isn't going to move the needle very far. we are beginning to see that >> very quickly, china trade talks, what do you think happens? >> it is interesting with china. every time you read it in the press, united states is the biggest economy and china is the second biggest that is true but not all the statement you need to know we are $22 trillion, they are

$13 trillion it is substantially smaller than we are >> and divided by billions of people >> 1.6 billion >> they have banking issues. i think they have to make a deal at some point. >> at some point the question is when >> that's always the question, right. >> don't worry relax. you seem really worried something good might happen. it is not going to happen. >> we had this conversation about it not happening >> i know, you get really excited excited it is not going to happen real quickly, frenchman say

nabakov. italians and russians say nabakov. >> they say porsche. >> did you know vivian dark bloom. >> i'm never going it be able to say it that way. i'm glad to see that >> we happen to be on tv while this is all happening. >> they think of all the spanish names we don't pronounce >> unbelievable. >> the way it has always been. >> i know. >> i've been on "squawk box" 23 years. it has always been wonderful >> good thing or bad thing >> great thing >> a new study finds that snart warren's wealth tax would create

$1 trillion less than stated >> and later today, delta ceo will join us to talk about the company's plans for the future

a new study from

pennsylvania's war ton school found that the elizabeth warren wealth tax would generate $1 trillion less than the campaign claimed. that is well below the $3.75 trillion saying it would shrink the economy by 2050 when we'll all be under water anyway. found that hourly wages would drop due to production in capital ormation this doesn't sound great i can't believe an ivy league school is allowed to publish this elizabeth warren defended the wealth tax saying the study

makes indefensible assumptions if i had to error on the side. >> the economist that came wup the wealth tax to begin with oil tycoon is stepping down from the company he founded board member william berry will take over in january hamm turned 74 recently. unlocking fossil fuels that were considered too difficult and costly to reach. they'll join squauckwauchl squan the street at 10:00 a.m. eastern time >> lululemon shares under pressure we'll show you the move.

>> getting crushed >> then we'll talk trade with congressman kevin brady on the deal to replace nafta. a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers ♪ through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from using feedback to innovate... to introducing products faster... to managing website inventory...

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♪ >> when i hear that song, that reminds me of a different time >> good morning.

live from the nasdaq marketsite on times scare we'll show you what's going on about three hours before the market opens dow looking to open about 17 points higher, s&p about three points and the nasdaq about 10.5 points higher. we have some stocks to mention we mentioned lululemon joe is not wearing them today. that may be the problem. >> getting crushed >> gross margins in same store sales, slightly short of estimates. the stock up 80% to date giving back some of those gains down about 4%. >> you didn't wear them because you don't like being called a slob >> pot meet kettle that was a good one.

we have a shoot today. we have some things, promotional-type things. there is going to be a jacket involved you've got about three or four different outfits. >> costume changes >> i'm wearing a suit today. >> you should wear the blazer. you should >> i will. it is not a blazer it is a very nice suit they wanted a nice shirt for tv, white is not good if you are not going to wear a jacket so this is actually blue but a whitish blue bluish white >> general electric shares rising the company upgrading the buy on ubs. analysts think he is there for leveraging check out shares up now by 1.6%. shares of fiat chrysler are up this morning after agreeing to a

four-year deal the last of the big three detroit automakers to reach after t >> coming up, the tariff deadline is approaching after a threat of 15% tax on consumer goods. we'll talk to representative kevin brady on the possibility of a deal. and delta airlines ceo will be in straight ahead. >> announcer: today's big number, 192.5 million. that's how many people flew on delta airlines in 2018 making it the second largest airline in the world bypasseningers carried, second only to american airlines. fights cancer, repairs shattered bones,

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>> welcome back. we've been watching the u.s. equity futures we saw some modest advances after the fed and more importantly jay powell said they are not likely to move next year because of where inflation stands it looks like dow futures are indicated up by about 15 points. s&p up by about three and nasdaq

up by about 10 right now the dax is flat, so is the cac. ftse is up about a half a percent and in spain, down just over a tenth of a percent. if you were watching asia -- actually looking at energy first. wti up about half a percent. 59.06, where it has been stuck they talked about how they are writing down some of the assets. ice up to 64.21. >> preparing to impose 15% tariffs on chinese goods the deadline is set for sunday there is talk of a possible delay which will hit consumer goods like toys, phones, laptops. with us, ranking member of the

ways and means what can you tell us about the state of the state, state of the negotiations that you know >> my sense is that the parties have stayed at the stable over recent months and they feel like they are making good progress. my sense is that they are actually tackling the pry orities ending the transfer, removing the barriers, those type of issues force enforcement. if those are reflected in the phase one agreement, i'll tell you that will be a successful agreement. >> getting you to weigh in now are there two camps? because we are not getting enough to leaking things that way and another group of insiders pushing the other way >> i haven't seen too much,

honestly it seems to me, this is one of those areas where it is in everyone's interest to have a subsequent agreement i thinks that where they are headed and one of the reasons there is cautious optimism around i think the progress they've made feels right >> can you rattle off that list again. you talked about trademark, a lot of ip. those issues that would be a great phase one deal my expectations and the market expectations are lower maybe no tariffs and they buy a bunch of ag products >> i think the white house has been careful not to oversell this but to go for the substance. depth of intellectual property has been huge. this isn't just tech, this is our manufacturing sector the big reason we are in china

the things we are good on selling. agriculture and financial services huge as well. the biggest challenge has been with china le lessons learned from the past agreements is you've got to hold them accountable i think you spend a great deal of time there. if that phase one wraps those in, that really matters. >> if it doesn't wrap all of that in, would you think it is a good deal? >> i think the administration could have accepted a skinny deal much earlier than this. that's not why they got into this dispute they want to redesign and reset that whole trading relationship. if these are the type of issues, even a couple in phase one, that is substantive >> congressman peter navarro is one of the players

i don't know if he was trying to hide anything when you use the letters of your name to make a pen name he's very hawkish. he does have some influence, so it is not just rumors that there are two camps here it doesn't really sound like he wants this to be done. who does lighthizer listen to? a lot of people throw lighthizer and navarro into this camp >> lighthizer whether usmca, japan, china, he's got a boss. he knows where president trump wants to go. he knows where this economy needs to go on trade he's been on this a long time. i don't know about all that. what i do know is there is a sense that they've made good progress they are not going to rush into a bad deal but it feels like, you know, they are continuing to march

forward. that's, i think, a good thing. >> what's -- go ahead. what is your prescription drug bill look like i know you want to talk about that the two parties have switched sides on a lot of things i'm not sure importing cap drug prices from other countries that don't develop any drugs is the right way to go. what do you want to do >> wrong solution there. the pelosi plan, they just dumped a lot of bipartisan work for a secret partisan bill we put together 40 bipartisan bills in the house and senate that president could sign. it does do things. it does lower drug prices and

accelerates more coors to ture e market there is a flaw. you do get lower drug prices now but lower solutions for the future the solution that delays drugs these families that don't have access to these life-saving drugs and they are not developed there. we have 40 different provisions that can be signed and work. >> both sides have great points to make there. there are times when prescription drugs are the best value. you want to develop these drugs. you want to see some of the pricing and the way that system gets the gain for the patents. both sides are at fault and both sides have good points the thing here is given the price of alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer and all that. the costliest drug is the one

that doesn't get involved for these very costly, damaging illnesses. let's accelerate them, not delay them >> if i move to florida, i could get a pretty good meal just on this salt stuff. i couldn't deduct it anymore >> i knew it was coming. >> are you going to do anything for relief here. i could go to mortons. what are they going do there >> call your governor and mayor and tell them to lower the taxes. >> don't get rid of the salt never going to do that >> never going to happen >> what ever happened to tax 2.0 or 3.0 >> you already passed reform 2.0 last year.

you voted against it >> what about 3.0. >> we can do more for growth in this economy >> coming up, markets reacting to the fed decision yesterday with jay powell signaling they'll stay on the sidelines for the most part of 2020. we'll talk more about the paimct on investors next.

welcome back to "squawk box" the fed's last meeting of 2019 ended with rates remaining unchanged, and the outlook right now indicates no changes through 2020 we get over to steve liesman who is in washington this morning with the latest. steve. >> yeah, heck of of a year for monetary policy, andrew.

from 180 to hike rates, foltd by three rate cuts in a row, the fed putting rates on a firm hold the fed said in the statement, 1 1/2 to 1 and three quarter percent is appropriate unlike the insurance cuts in 1998, fed chair jerome powell saying no need to take back the three cuts of 2019 >> what's different is you have a very different, you have very different structural characteristics in the economy, particularly around inflation. so now as you can see, inflation is barely moving up, notwithstanding that unemployment is at 50-year lows, and expected to remain there >> when the sign of what fed officials are thinking, 13 of the 17 members forecast no rate hike in 2020, that's a big reversal from the nine who previously pencilled in higher rates for next year. what happens in the u.s. could depend on what happens in europe analysts see new ecb president christine lagarde former imf

director a monetary mystery. she said she intends to follow her predecessor mario. there is debate whether the negative rate interest policies even work. and may even be counterproductive. european central bank policy statement comes out at 7:45 this morning and that's followed by lagarde's inaugural press conference 30. andrew, maybe we'll get a few clues more what lagarde is thinking on that >> i actually want to hear, i'm very interested in her first day on -- >> i think it's really consequential for the us what happens both in interest rates and in growth in europe. >> thank you, steve. let's talk a little more about what will remain on the fed's radar in the coming year joining us right now is chris campbell, former assistant treasury secretary for financial institutions, part of the trump administration thank you for being here >> good to be here >> so, this is a sign that all things are a go, there's a green light or is this a yellow light? >> i think the fed's obviously

looking at the economy and they see we're in a good spot, relatively good spot and i think they're leaving rates unchanged. it's a good signal that we're going to be in a place where these rates probably to the end of next year >> for so long we've talked about how the fed looks at china trade war, how the fed looks at what's going on in europe. we talked about what christine lagarde may or may not say later today. does it no longer matter >> i don't know. >> was this all noise the whole time >> i always thought so again, i was -- worked the deals, inside deals in washington a long time i think it's always been -- all of this is noise we looked at the long game when negotiating some of the important things of the economy. >> are you a believer, though, any of this has been a drag on the economy? >> doesn't appear that way in the united states. >> life is relative. >> that's true look, i don't -- i'm not envy us

of lagarde's inbox she has some real challenges over there it's going to be interesting to see what she says. i think here at home, the fed almost never intervenes in an election year, so i think at least on the interest rate policy, i think we're going to see steady states for the next year >> people talk about election years and capital spending if you get in a race where you feel like there is a race of sorts, people often sit on their hands. i'm going to wait this out, figure out what's about to happen who knows who is going to win. what's your expectation there? >> i think, i think permly tson the president is going to get reelected, we're going to see this another five years. >> the capital spending story -- if everybody believes president trump will continue to be the president, if that's the conventional obvious wisdom throughout next year, i assume green light will be on for

everything because why not >> i think if i were a betting man i'd bet on that. at the end of the day it's going to come down to race president trump against somebody, and whoever that somebody is is going to be a very interesting race. i think it's going to be a challenging race but i think at the end of the day it's going to be that personality. the democrats tend to -- if they're going to go far left, it's going to be a challenge i think for the states that matter i think the smart money here in europe and new york -- that's what i'm hearing from a lot of our clients. >> as we've been speaking, there is breaking news we're going to end this early. happy holidays joe, what's going on >> they have reached a confidenti confidential agreement with boeing for the damages related to the grounding of the 737-max. southwest says it's going to share the proceeds of the boeing agreement with its employees >> it's interesting --

>> the first of a few. >> the pilots. >> the 737-max than any other u.s. airlines. they had a lawsuit that was brought by their pilots union in early october saying that the pilots thought that they had lost about $115 million in compensation as a result of not getting those new airlines, those airplanes they had been expecting. this plane has been grounded since march 13th the flight attendants at southwest had also considered suing. so this kind of wraps up both of those unions, i would assume, into this as well. i guess that would deal with the existing lawsuit that had been out there, again, since early october from the pilots union themselves again, they thought 115 million -- southwest is saying about $125 million will go to the employees as part of the profit sharing for part of this. >> maybe we'll talk about this with ed with delta with views, the companies involved in this ed's been following this very closely. >> he's been the beneficiary of

this they have been able to win market share as those other three major airlines have not had the number of planes in the air that they anticipated. >> costs went up based on that, too. i thought it was a good quarter. all right. when we come back, we have a cnbc exclusive interview with delta c.e.o. ed bastian. we're going to hear what they are expecting for 2020, what he thinks about this agreement. and a little later this morning, former white house advisor steve bannon will be on set with us he'll be talking about everything that's happening with the president's trade war. he'll weigh in on the china talks, what he expects next. "squawk box" will be right back.

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ready for take-off delta will meet with investors today. before they do, c.e.o. ed bastian jones "squawk box" live. >> with the fed on hold, investors look to china and a last-minute trade deal the latest market news and what it means for your money coming up >> and deals for the next decade the man behind some of the biggest mergers in our lifetime joins us with his bold predictions. as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

♪ ♪ >> good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin with becky quick and joe kernen take a look at the futures an hour, 2 1/2 hours. the dow jones this morning, s&p 500 looking to open 4 1/2 points higher the nasdaq looking to open about 14 points higher >> delta is holding an investor day in atlanta the airline providing an outlook for 2020 and phil lebeau joins us as a special guest. hey, phil. >> hay, joe. let's bring in ed bastian. let's talk about the numbers what you're projecting here is solid growth both on the top and bottom line. >> demand is great

2019 was the best year, arguably holiday demand has been strong, the sunday we finished after thanksgiving was the highest revenue day in our history almost $200 million in revenue in that one day alone. as we look through the holiday and through 2020, we see that solid demand continuing. the u.s. consumer is doing well by us. we're projecting revenue growth of between 4 and 6%. >> you are also looking at, what, $4 billion in free cash flow >> yes >> you have the free cash flow coming through you're raising earnings, projected guidance 6.75 to 7.75. the mid point moves higher >> yes >> where do you see the strength overall? obviously you mentioned everything is strong right now from your perspective. is there one area you're looking at and saying this is the area we're seeing the greatest strength >> it's the u.s., the u.s. consumer 07% of our business is in the u.s. the u.s. spend is strong, spend is strong, preference for our brand is greater than we've

seen, net promoter scores are at all-time highs as we look to continue to invest that momentum, $4 billion of free cash is great that's going to be our new baseline we measure going forward, $4 billion of free cash flow return which is for our owners >> next year in the industry, you have the 737-max expected to come back, adding more capacity. there was a theme, maybe six months ago in the industry, oh, boy, we're going to have too much capacity here do you think people have dialed back those concerns and are now saying, wait a second, this is not going to be as dilutive as people thought when it comes to too many seegts coming back into the system >> certainly an uncertainty for all of us, how it's going to come, where it's going to be feathered in this is going to be a gradual reinduction of the aircraft. we don't have the max as you know >> right >> and we don't believe we got a material benefit in 2019 from not having the max we don't think we're going to be at material risk in terms of when the max comes back in 2020. demand is strong and i think

there's plenty of aircraft out there to serve that need >> and we're not going to likely see a huge impact in terms of fares, people concerned there's too much capacity there. >> i don't see that. >> internationally, it was a huge agreement for you guys and i think you announced it three or four weeks ago. internationally, are you comfortable with what you're seeing in terms of demand? >> international is a bit more choppy with brexit and what's going to happen in the u.k. is always one of the concerns we have. but across the board, we're seeing growth. one of the things about our plan in 2020 is we're going to be posting growth in every region of the world in terms of our capacity some years you're up, some years you're down, next year we're all in in europe the la tamme deal is phenomenal. we're excited with our partners down in chile as well as crekor. we closed a deal to own 10% in korean air adding narita to seoul is good for us >> the trade talks, any residual

impact concerns as you look out over the next year >> not in a meaningful way china is small for us. i don't think that's going to be one of those things that's a material risk to the company >> today you guys are also announcing a new partnership with wheels up tell me a little how this is going to work out for your frequent fliers, especially those at the very high end who may be somebody who could benefit from perhaps going with wheels up for a certain trip >> yeah, we're excited to do the deal with the wheels up team we're essentially going to be merge rg, r our delta private jets ed into the wheels up platform and come away as an equity owner in the new company. it's a way to extend our brand and escondido our ability into a new space. we're not going to have it stuck, mother delta it's going to be alongside delta so we can enjoy the benefits and have a lot more transparency and growth opportunities for both kenny's team has done a great job building what i call a did

he mock ra demi democratization. >> how will that workout for a diamond elite member who says, hey, look, i have a particular trip coming up will you then say here's an opportunity with wheels up how will that workout? >> we're going to offer opportunities for all of our strong customers to be wheels up members in one of their membership programs, thus they'll have access to that fleet of airplanes we have and will be able to interchange whatever size aircraft they need whether it's in the king air fleet or a delta 737, 900. we'll be able to go back and forth and interchange. it will be exciting. >> andrew, i know you have a question >> ed, two questions one on wheels up we'll be talking to dick kenny in a little bit.

the idea about democrtizing, hai low can you get the price? >> one thing is to drive affordability. one thing most exciting is the digital platform they're creating it will be a more open source model. one of the challenges of private aviation always is your ability to kind of utilize the fleet and close out those open legs, the repositioning of aircraft. so we're going to -- the open source platform i think in itself is going to create more affordable options with the consumers. >> ed, with size and with delta adding a lot of size and heft to the number of people that might use wheels up, couldn't you fill up more of the planes so that an eight-seater doesn't have two people and if there were eight, the hours per person would go down significantly, i guess, if you had enough size. >> that's exactly right, joe that's why the technology and the digital platform is the key. there's no platform out there that -- certainly not at our scale in terms of being able to

bring that -- >> almost turns into a commercial -- not really >> right and then that's the flip side of t. >> you'd have to fly with strange strangers again. >> there are other issues. we can talk to kenny about some of those while we have you, ed, and i know delta has been a beneficiary of this, there was news that literally broke before you came on. southwest airlines out with a statement saying that they reached a confidential agreement with boeing and they plan to compensate southwest for a portion of the protected financial damages related to the grounding of that 737-max and southwest planning to share some of the proceeds with -- proceeds with their employees what do you make of all of this? >> you know, andrew, we're not in the max, so i can't really comment too much i do think it's been -- certainly southwest has carried the bulk of the impact in our country. i know united and american have both been out, but it's really been southwest that's been impacted i do think that boeing will do

the right thing and we're all waiting for that plane to come back into the sky. because what we need is we need boeing focused on development and technology in the new frontiers of innovation. that right now they're unfortunately paralyzed. >> you don't have a 737-max, but you have a lot of boeing planes and you work with the company so closely. how things changed over the last six months and how do you anticipate them changing over the next year in terms of getting this plane back up and actually being able to focus on some of these other issues >> you're right. we operate 600 boeing aircraft the service levels and the support have been great for boeing throughout this crisis, but the thing that we're missing is that next development opportunity. that's where we need boeing. whether we've got 757 or 76 replacements coming up or just continuing to extend the platforms that we already operate with them, we're happy to see hopefully the max return in the first part of next year,

and we'll see how that goes. >> really hopefully because you've done very well. you've been the beneficiary of the max being out. you guys have won the market share. you talked about how that helped you with your last earnings report >> we really are interested in getting it out we're happy to compete against anybody. we did not get an outsized amount of revenue growth from the max being out. it came from the strength of our brand. the last two years, delta has grown 15%. we're in the top third in the fortunate 500 in terms of growth rates for the last two years running. and i think going forward next year we're going to see another strong top line growth because the people at delta is the very best ed brand we're putting out there is top shelf and that's what we'll continue to focus on, things we can control. >> i know wheels up has other investors. you won't be majority owner at this point what are we talking about, can you give us an idea how much of an owner you're going to be, delta? >> we can't disclose the details, joe, since it's a

private company. we're not a majority owner, no, but we'll be a significant equity owner we'll be an active owner in the platform >> do you follow like nca football -- would you ever consider being the wheels up guest that goes down to college game day to be with desmond howard and corso -- are you a georgia fan? what do you think? would you do that? >> of course i can talk to kenny. i'm a big georgia fan. that wasn't one of the deals we negotiated >> really? >> i certainly would have bet on georgia, my hometown, last saturday i'm not sure it would have done too well >> and you actually would be put on the spot. you've got to pick those -- i'm going to work on that for you because kenny is coming on maybe i'd like to do that. >> kenny is here, kenny is here with me. >> oh, he is good just ask him he's the guy that can help you i don't know whether it ever becomes mainstream you always have to be -- what did we decide? we had a guy on that said .01%

he actually gave us a number on the net worth you need to do this, remember didn't he say like -- >> he was lower than i thought he said 10, and i think -- we'll talk to kenny about it affidavit least historically kenny was in the sort of 30 to 50 range as sort of a minimum, net worth. >> to do it a lot? but there are more and more, unfortunately -- until we get a decent -- unless we get bernie or elizabeth in, maybe these people are going to keep multiplying, these rich people anyway, you're working on that >> hey, guys, look, i know you want to talk to kenny. he's going to be back here in a half hour.