Give me a break... especially Deltamd90 from PCL, quit the melodrama. Everyone knows that the mother ship picks and regional partner based on cost and operating metrics. Bottom line is that Mesaba has a great cost structure and very good performance. We're ending October with about 95% A14 and roughly 99% completion factor. We're also cheap because we were dragged through bankruptcy and as a company absolutely streamlined and made even more efficient than we were before Ch11.

A little history for you all -

We are well aware of the whipsaw game, its almost like NWA invented it! From 1996-2000 Mesaba grew like crazy and Express I and II (now Pinnacle) shrank. They operated in MSP and MEM and Mesaba while growing took over and had exclusive operations for NWA in MSP and DTW. Express was relegated to MEM with a bunch of saabs and jet streams. Oh, they were in contract negotiations. Curiously, around 2000 NWA ordered CRJs and awarded them to Express. Who started contract negotiations next? Mesaba.

Between 2001-2007 as Express took delivery of hundreds of CRJs, changed their name, had an IPO, showed up in MSP and DTW, had high profile accidents and famous staffing and operational debacles. All the while Mesaba slowly shrunk, furloughed pilots multiple times, had very long and drawn out contentious contract negotiations that went past the 30 day cooling off period into a virtual strike and did it all safely and ethically. A year later we got awarded CRJs only to take 2 of them because NWA entered Ch11 and we followed a month later. More furloughs followed, our entire Avro fleet was parked along with more than a dozen saabs. To add insult to injury one of our TWO CRJs were transferred over to Compass to keep their certificate alive. In the beginning of 2007 we had 49 saabs and 1 CRJ.

In 2007 we emerged from Ch11 as a subsidiary of NWA and started the rebuilding process. We had over 200 pilots quit in 1.5 years and 220 on furlough. Only 60 were recalled. You do the math. Between April of 2007 and today we've over doubled our fleet and over doubled our seniority list. That's why we're cheap. We also run a good airline.

Just a little history for those who weren't aware or to those who are new to the business. Yes, it was absolutely hard to watch Pinnacle grow out of control, make the news on multiple occasions, bend airplanes and at the same time my company shrink, wonder if I still had a job and see the darkest days in bankruptcy. I get it. But at some point you have to realize that it's not all about the pilots, it's not personal and it's just business. As I said, the mother ship will pick those who are cost effective and operate well. If it were based on emotion and deserving qualities in our own minds we'd all be king of the hill.

We have the painful history and brutal scars to show you if you want to know why we're in the position we're in today. We are a good pilot group from a good company with good maintenance, safety culture, facilities, training, equipment and company culture. That's not ignoring the days of the past, but it is reality. We're not the enemy, so stop acting like we've killed your cat just to get to fly with mother D.