Originally Posted by
Redraider217
Can someone help a noob with the abbreviations?? 9L? 9E?
CH11?
XJ = Mesaba
9E = Pinnacle
9L = I believe to be Colgan, based on the fact that they go along with the other two
CH11 = Chapter 11 bankruptcy (other option would be Chapter 7)
And while I wouldn't blame only the pilot contract for the Pinnacle bankruptcy, it was certainly a contributing factor. And I'm not even talking about the pay rates. Those weren't excessive. I would blame the training costs associated with people switching aircraft.
Here is what I don't understand about contract negotiations and airlines, but regionals specifically. Why does everyone believe they should have a better contract than the competition, or even a better contract than they already have? At the major level, at least the company can up ticket prices to bring in more revenue. But, at the regional level, income is stuck at a predetermined level. If you shoot too high, your company can no longer be profitable.
I would love to see every pilot in the country fly under the same contract. I don't mean on the same seniority list, or the same company. Just the same contract. That would take labor costs out of the picture and put blame solely on management's ability to actually manage. Go bankrupt and guess what, can't blame labor. Tough to talk a judge in to concessions when costs are exactly the same as those at all of the competition.