That right there sort of encapsulates the last decade of the regional industry and their problems. Your idea to save Pinnacle/Mesaba pilots is to throw the Colgan guys under the bus. Right now, when that happens, the aircraft just get moved to a new carrier with 1 and 2 year Captains that have the lowest costs which further puts pressure on long established carriers. How long did it take Delta to place the Comair large RJ's into service after they shut down? Not long. ASA's costs are too high? Just move the jets to GoJets with new hires and problem solved.

The key to your future is cooperation and coordination. Trying to solve your problems by waiting for the destruction of others is not the answer. The rest of the conspiracy theories are just black helicopter stuff that might make you feel better but do nothing to solve your real problems. Delta only wishes they had the grand master plan to move chess pieces around. In reality, they wanted Pinnacle to merge to solve their problems and lower costs due to size. Their management blew it big time and then Delta was faced with a gigantic problem that they didn't want and didn't need. From there they just tried to salvage a terrible situation. That is why they sent a bunch of executives over there to clean house. This was not some Dr. Evil plot, it was a clown show in Memphis (Pinnacle HQ).