The economy has been slowing down for the last 20 plus years.

Some of the things that sort of influenced this are:

1. 2 8 year democrat presidents (Clinton and Obama).
2. Age 65
3. 9/11
4. Flood of RJ's increasing capacity too much
5. High fuel costs

The only thing that really makes me a bit nervous is all the occasional talk about age 70.

The world economy may slow but joe six pack still wants to fly from Chicago to Orlando for 79 bucks. Regardless of the security environment, this gig is all about supply and demand. Supply and demand among the pilot ranks and supply and demand of the customers.

This is the longest stretch of low fuel costs I can recall so that's good. The RJ's are decreasing in their dominance due to their poor economics, so that's good. ALPA doesn't appear to be pushing age 70 so that's good. Hopefully no big major US security event takes place and nothing bad since 9/11 sot that's positive. And, likely, we won't see a socialist democrat be elected and after the Obama abortion of a presidency likely no democrats elected for the rest of my lifetime. Yeah I know democrats are "labor friendly", but none of them would allow us to self help so it's a moot point. RLA limits what anyone can accomplish regardless of who is in the whitehouse.

Put all that above in a cake and bake it and I think our negotiating environment and our overall position is favorable.