I will try this again. Let me ask you a question first. Answer in your own mind. What year are you? I will use a 7 year Comair captain on the 76s that makes $79/hour. Factoring in DAL vs CO benefits package, I would highly doubt if we could fly it for $50/hour and remain competitive. That is a guess, but I'll bet it isn't far off the mark. So... would you as a 7 year guy fly captain on a 76 seat RJ for $50/hour? Or would you throw gear on the 717 for $108? Or more than likely, at 7 years, the 7ER for $124?

But then there will be those that say.. get 'em here and THEN worry about the pay. Sure. That rate would be so far away from what would be acceptable to the group so as to render it practically unobtainable (I want to live next door to Michelle Pfeiffer, but no matter how badly I want that I am pretty sure I could never get her neighbor to sell to me for what I think is fair). Next question. Once they are here... at $50/hour.. no let's say we could get current CO rates of $79... would you be willing to go to war over THAT?? Really? We would have NEW HIRES in the left seat of that airplane. So what is an acceptable rate for US to fly the 76s? That is the bottom line here. If you can rationalize that in your mind, and convince the rest of the pilot group to fight for that, I am all ears. Then you have to convince the company that it is a viable business plan. Good luck with THAT.

Oh, and that still does nothing to deal with the plethora of 50s that are still under contract until 2024...