Kingairip,

No, the costs are not really known per se. All they really know is that we will get an average of Delta/united, and even that's up in the air depending on what they sign next year.

There's that uncertainty, for starters.

Then there's the uncertainty of what the arbitrator will hand out for the rest of the cost neutral stuff. Some might be cost neutral, some might not. Nobody knows for sure.

All of that uncertainty will do wonders for the operation, catch my drift? That right there will make Wall Street nervous, and that does not bode well for management in many, many ways.

Now you take that and compare it to a contract where EVERYTHING is known, for a fixed amount of time?

To me the choice is obvious.

And furthermore... Parker has no clue as to what "the wheels coming off the operation" means. He has not experienced it at USAir/America west. The injunction against USAPA was a mere fraction of what happened here. If he wanted a taste, he should have been here in September 2012... and that will be a picnic compared to what will happen absent an ILC coming soon.