If the spike in sick/fatigue is true among West pilots, I'm surprised it has taken this long to consider such a thing. If so, one could further the rumor that the company is behind the extension so as to have time to plan and mitigate the revelation of the SLI to minimize disruption at PHX. Of course, the same consideration could be hypothesized to do the same in the East or LAA, should the ax fall harder on those heads. Not sure if sick/fatigue has spiked in either of those segments. Of course, if true in the West, it could just be a staffing/Summer thing.

Regardless of the validity of this, the fact is, no matter what, there will be extremely sour grapes and one or more sides pilots are going to be VERY unhappy. Considering either the Nic will or will not be used in pure form, that almost assures that dynamic on the pre-merger LUS side as one side has to lose that battle considering the all-or-nothing polarization regarding it. If I were the company, I'd definitely want to kick the can as late into the Summer flying schedule as possible as October is a target date as we all know.

Ah, the things one ponders as we watch the clock tick away wondering what will happen on that fateful day.............