At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter who owns the airplanes. In our FFD game, it really only matters who owns the flying. If they take the flying away but we own the airplanes, now we have a monthly payment to make on airplanes that don't have any flying to do. As a result, Mesa would be under pressure to find something for those airplanes to do, and end up signing even worse CPAs, or getting rid of the airplanes in a hurry. We all know "motivated sellers" don't get the best deal. Better for whoever owns the flying to own the airplanes. Ideally, its better for whoever owns the flying to own the pilots too, and hopefully that is the direction we will be heading in.

A contract is a contract...it's the language in the contract which makes it easier or harder for one party to get out of it....not a matter of who owns the aircraft.

On that note, prior121 is absolutely correct. Why take flying away from a contractor who is performing well? Doesn't make business sense, regardless of what a few jealous pilots may want/think. The performance statistics are right there for all United Express pilots to see.

As far as 10-12 months from now goes, if Mesa is able to continue to hire enough pilots through the end of the summer and doesn't get greedy and sign a bunch more big CPAs and bite off more than it can chew, we will be fine. We're doing well now, for once. Slow, steady growth is a lot more sustainable than the overnight stuff. Employees end up with a much better quality of life with slow, steady growth too. Upgrade times may be slightly longer that way, but trust me, it's better in the long run.