Originally Posted by
WILLTinbound
I always thought that the US Airways flying that Mesa operates right now out of PHX and LAS would be something that Skywest mgmt would fight aggressively for if it were up for grabs.. but the idea of purchasing a company like Mesa and inheriting all their disgruntled employees, broken airplanes, and other problems doesnt seem like something that Jerry and Co. would want to deal with.. why would you want to buy a company thats gonna take so much effort to change the corporate culture.. my guess is that we'd just wait for Mesa to enter bancruptcy and then tell Airways we'd be happy to take over their Phoenix and Vegas operations..
also the idea of integrating (stapling) the seniority lists makes no sense either.. especially with Mesa being ALPA..
I'm not holding my breath for this one to come true
Yes.
Airways has been talking to SKW for years about the PHX/LAS flying...my gut feeling (no hard info) is that it is inevitable...not a matter of if, just when. My understanding is that the mesa contract is in it's twilight, with drawdown options available to Doug Parker starting last year.
I could not imagine SKW actually buying mesa intact...there are too many problems at mesa that SKW would not want to inherit:
- Go!
- Go! Lawsuits and financial damages.
- China Operation
- ALPA
- The corporate cultures are diametrically opposed, and the level of gross incompetence at mesa would lead me to think that the only solution would to burn it down and start all over.
The only POSSIBLE incentive that SKW would have to buy all or part of mesa would the pilot shortage. There might be no other way to staff up a large new operation.
One concept that comes to mind is to buy the needed airplanes from mesa at a premium (JO will do anything for money), and make a deal to allow any MAG pilot to VOLUNTARILY move over to SKW with new-hire SKW seniority, SKW pay based on their MAG longevity, and domicile fences to protect their relative seniority (ie stay in PHX, stay a captain). They would obviously leave ALPA behind. I think most would jump at that opportunity, just like the several hundred Pan-Am pilots who were allowed to lateral to UAL when UAL acquired pan-am's pacific routes.