Airline of Greenville was AIR SOUTH (to/from NYC, I think) prior to
their going bye, bye, and I think they were S.C. State start-up
$upplemented, weren't they?

Airline of Birmingham is Southwest, which still goes to/from Seattle a
coupla bucks (how many, $200?) cheaper than Delta of
Hartsfield-Jackson

PLUS: When ya change a reservation on Southwest, they don't add-on a
fee, $25---$100, whatever it's now at Delta, which really is a damne
****ser in case nobody told them.

I cannot totally disagree with your pov, as I agree the marketplace is
much more efficient than regulation or fare maintenance--the public
policy rationale is purportedly so that the smaller cities could get
fairly good airline service too

Delta somehow/seemingly kept Southwest out of ATL, but couldn't
keep-out Air Tran, which has obtained new planes rather than those
strictly ole DC-9s, and I've flown on 'em both.

However, though I readily concede 9/11, and that the fuel price
finally broke their back, I perceive the senior management and senior
pilots of Delta got too g.d. greedy, and perhaps ****ed-off other
employees--hurting morale. Delta had relatively few labor problems
prior to the 1990s, though I'm subject to mis-apprehension & other
idiocy.

When Eastern had all its troubles, it was popularly thought that
Delta's employees liked their company too much to allow it to fail.
They literally chipped-in cash (?) for their company at one point.

The idea about Mullins is some of the gossip an outsider gathers from
local media.