Any of you guys happen to catch Richard Anderson's excitement in the Q1 2013 Investor's call about Pinnacle?
We old timers have heard it before ... from Fred Reid and Leo Mullin about Comair, 14 years ago and candidly, Comair had a hell of a run until they mistakenly thought they were real airline pilots and struck without any brand or scope. They finally achieved some measure of scope, but when it expired they died as a result of longevity costs and gross mismanagement by Delta. My favorite comment by a reporter was "Comair was a multi Billion dollar company, then Delta bought them."
Richard Anderson (and perhaps more importantly Ed Bastian & Mike Campbell) would have reason to be emboldened by the National Mediation Board determination that GoJets was not a single transportation system simply because they operated different airplanes to get around a scope clause. For according to some rumors that is exactly how Delta intends to operate Pinnacle, just as GoJets is to Trans States.
http://www.nmb.gov/representation/deter2006/33n009.pdf
All in, it was a better deal for GoJets than Trans States, as management picked "the best deal."
ALPA and Delta pilots were complete morons to allow multiple pilot groups to sit down and do competing deals with one management team.
Back in the salad days of Comair and ASA I always thought "man this is ugly, I am surprised Delta pilots do not want to resolve this with a single list." Once again, I have the same thought.
However, international problems and stories about RJ's being "last decade's problem" are used to distract the membership from whatever effect a group of pilots operating airplanes better than the mainline narrow body fleet* working for less pay might have on mainline negotiations.
So, what does mainline trade in 2015?