This meltdown is one reason why it would've been better to have filed for mediation earlier. Based on typical times in mediation, there's very little chance that we'll be released from mediation anytime in the next year. Of course, the railroads proved that the average time in mediation isn't always a good guide when they were released after only 134 days in mediation. But that was an extraordinarily short amount of time to attain a release.

Anyhow, had we been in mediation longer right now, the chances of us actually being released sometime in the next six months would also be higher. That would've allowed us to more effectively capitalize on the meltdown if there was a realistic possibility that we might be released sometime fairly soon. I doubt that management would want to follow up this debacle in quick succession with another debacle in the form of a real chance that pilots might shut the place down for any length of time.

I hope that SWAPA doesn't commit any more similar major unforced errors this contract cycle like, say, putting out a milquetoast Alaska-esque or Delta-esque TA after a SAV and before a release from mediation.