Originally Posted by
Airsupport
hold on there buckaroo, never said he was my friend, i just meet him while he was going through training. and yes i know it is doubling your fleet, but that means nothing when you are calling guys back from furlough, and have fo's that have been with the company for 5 years or more. and i am not sure you guys will be getting those 15 crj's. One of our dispatchers rode in our jumpseat about a month ago and said non of the planes are even scheduled to be taken out of service, and that all our flying, as given to us by nwa, till the end of the year is based on the planes we have now with no fleet reduction. i honestly don't think those planes are going to go off property. since nwa mainline bought you guys they have no reason to now, they got the best deal in the world with us flying them. also do you really think nwa will staff the planes 5 to 1??? are you crazy man,, they aren't even close to doing that with their own planes. they are short on crews so staffing 5 to 1 is not going to happen. so like i said there are fo's at mesaba that have been there for 5 years, waiting for a chance to upgrade. Even your generous estimate is 2 years, i personally think it will be much longer. and you are right. mesaba has better work rules, even after the concessionary contract you guys accepted. not arguing that. i guess i have different plans than you. i want in, up, and out. thats all. every week we lose about 10 captains to the majors, our message board is full of goodbyes, and hopefully like them i will only be here 3 years max and be on my way. I think the guy that left mesaba to come here was making a smart move. he wanted to get the pic, and even after being there 5 years he knew it wasn't coming fast. and he knew about the 900's obviously since that was announced a long time ago. he, like me, wasn't ready to make the red tail regionals his home.
1) Yes, Mesaba does staff roughly 10:1 CAs + FOs (sure, maybe it's a little bit less).
2) The 900 announcement came after NWA bought us, and the 200 announcement came after that, so your argument that NWA would change their minds against giving us the 200's after they bought us doesn't make any sense.
3) We are more than doubling our fleet now. There were about 520 guys on the list when we bottomed out at 49 Saabs. Then about 70 came back from furlough. Of these numbers, a small, but fair amount don't fly, so don't count towards the 10:1 (mgt, mil, LOA, LTD, Sim guys, and others). Some won't ever upgrade cause they don't need to or care to and like being senior FO's. Some will continue to leave to bigger things. The outlook for upgrades is still very good here.
4) Sure, this is the airline biz, anything could happen, but it would not make any sense for NWA to mess with us now, because they want to build value. They do not own PCL, and have already fleeced that cuddly little lamb. Heck, PCL's flying for Delta now, and that ain't gonna buy any love from the fiends at NWA HQ. Now, in 5-ish years, when it's time for a new XJ contract, then all bets are off.