I still don't see why ASA pilots are "equally responsible." In our 2007 contract we negotiated scope provisions that, while not one list, keep what's ours ours. The fact that no further airplanes have been transferred between the companies shows that it has worked and that management is not willing to comply with our rules about aircraft transfers.

In fact, we negotiated scope for SkyWest pilots. If their airplanes are transferred to ASA, their pilots get to bid on coming over to our side and are integrated fairly. It also covers aircraft transfers to any yet-unknown SKW entities... which would have come into play had the XJT purchase gone through, or any future purchase down the road.

What scope has SkyWest ever negotiated for ASA pilots? All I remember was the big fat finger they gave us after the ALPA drive.

The fact that we were not able to achieve one list during our last negotiations was based more on an unfriendly NMB and an unfriendly management team. In fact, negotiating one list would most likely result in massive concessions (a la Eagle's 16 year contract) to get the deal done. After all the concessions were agreed to, guess who's contract the SkyWest pilots would be operating under?

In fact, if ASA and SkyWest were to merge right now, ASA would lose big time. We have about 10% of our list on furlough, and 65 captains that will be soon FOs again. Even if there was a DOH merge (which would never happen because it would favor ASA), furloughs would go to the bottom of the combined list, and the newly displaced captains would stay as FOs on the list.

So, it's a "be careful for what you wish for" scenario for sure.