Mesa is having significant problems. There is a point to which being miserly with your employee groups ceases to impact the bottom line in a positive way and insteads affects it negatively. In this age of "consolidation", "Synergy", and "Economies of scale" it is largely ignored that sometimes making sure your employees are paid ENOUGH is just as important as "not overpaying for labor". The economic cycle will take care of this. An interesting analysis to go through would be to compare what Mesa spends on training due to their extreme turnover, compared to what they would spend if they had normal attrition but a good contract. Training expenses and turnover hit the bottom line too - and in a financial statement numbers are numbers - doesn't matter if expenses are "salary and wages" or "training expenses". Finding a regional that can balance these needs on the balance sheet is a tricky thing - not sure if any really make it work? Would be interested in discussing "What regionals make this work and how do they do it" rather that "Mesa or xyz Regional sucks".