Originally Posted by deltajuliet

American plans to keep PHX at its current hub status for the foreseeable future. We'll be done with LAX flying by August, and that is transferring over to DFW where all the tentative American growth will be located. We'll also be trying to recapture some of the SkyWest 900 business in Phoenix. All the transition issues and growing pains have affected our performance; he acknowledged that but said they expect things to go much more smoothly once we are done with LA and fully settled in DFW. There was also mention of potential supplemental DFW bases like Austin, but that remains to be seen.

Charlotte is scheduled to close July 5.

Dulles and Houston should stay about the same. We're aggressively trying to get the second batch of Ejets, and if we do they'll most likely end up somewhere other than Houston. But JO often referred to how other regionals have "something to trade," like voluntarily terminating their 50-seat contracts early. Not just with the United Ejets but with any potential new business.

It sounds like Delta and Mesa might consider doing business again. It sounded more substantive than just "it'd be nice," and he even mentioned the possibility of Minneapolis, but nothing was concrete. I also got the impression that he wouldn't be interested in doing any 200 flying for them.

An FO brought up our first year pay, to which JO brought up second year Captain pay. Flow through was also asked about, and JO said our union was more interested in other things like pay during contract negotiations, so it hasn't been actively pursued, although they've been working on flow through from the other end (135 operators sending their pilots to Mesa once they're at 1500).

As far as street Captains, he said they'll consider it if we don't have anyone eligible to upgrade but his priority is people who are already here. In that respect, he said he'd rather prolong growth (take deliveries more slowly) to give our people the chance to reach 1000 SIC. However, in spite of how junior the last upgrade went, there are apparently a lot of people who could upgrade but have held off for whatever reason.

He intends to double Mesa's size over the next three years.