Pretty much what higney85 posted above. Obviously there's a lot of speculation going around the merger, but that's exactly what it is, speculation. Except for ATL the company is understaffed, and that's the way mgmt is planning to run the airline. Lineholders are forced to almost 100 hrs/month, unless really senior. Still you get treated like a child, and respect to the pilot group from the company is almost non-existing overall.
Future.......humm......well in my personal opinion, (key word personal), the biggest concern right now with Colgan it's scope. From the finnacial point of view, Colgan's very poor economical performance and the innability of PNCL to "flip them" into a profitable company. (the original plan).
Also, with the merger, although we have a solid contract with NW, in the long run doesn't mean much in this business. NW is bringing two "legit" kids, (compass and Mesaba) into the family, and us, the "redheaded stepchild" (in DL's point of view). If the new DL needed more flying, I don't see why they'd give us any, they are going to own Compass and Mesaba, and they can easiely rev up both of them, there's a lot of money invested in both Compass and XJ and so far we haven't seen any intentions from NW to increase our flying or give us newer efficient airplanes. We have a bunch of 50 seaters that nobody wants, and DL has made clear that they need to get rid of them overall.
Now, before anybody starts flaiming, I'm not saying PNCL is gonna go away, but I'm really curious to see what happens. If I was to bet money, I would have to bet that nothing good is going to happen to PNCL after the merger, sorry guys.....just a feeling......I'm hopping I'm wrong. Meanwhile there's nothing I can do, so I'm not going to stress about it. I guess you can call me a negative person, but in this particular case I haven't found any reasons to expect better.