Read our lips: Your hub won't close*

*Offer non-transferrable, subject to modification, and may or may not be valid between the hours of 11:59 p.m. April 1, 2008 and 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31, 2055 at airports in states including but not limited to Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Utah plus contiguous states and territories as defined by applicable state and/or federal law. Passengers must be ambidextrous, green-eyed and between the ages of 101 and 102 to be eligible and must have purchased tickets by the light of the full moon using Greek drachmas dating from the 5th century B.C. and yadda yadda yadda yadda mumbleyadda yadda mumble.......
Just couldn't help but notice Northwest CEO Doug Steenland's statement Tuesday, reported by the Enquirer's Malia Rulon, that the, uh, promise they've made not to close any hubs after the Delta-Northwest merger -- not a single hub! no layoffs! honest! you have our word! -- comes with a giant, flying, late-to-the-gate asterisk: It all depends on fuel prices.

"It's not a static world where we can say, guarantee, positively, this is exactly what it's going to look like," Steenland told reporters in Washington. Well, of course not. We could discover personal levitation next week, making airlines obsolete. But still ...

Maybe he and Delta CEO Richard Anderson were playing "bad cops" to Delta President/CFO Ed Bastian's "good cop" visit to Cincinnati last week -- the one that gave everyone the warm and fuzzies about the future of Delta's CVG hub and its employees.

In case you missed it, listen here to what Bastian said at the time.

No wonder Sen. Sherrod Brown wanted it in writing.