goaround,
Unfortunately in 13 years it still takes 50 minutes to fly from MSN to ORD and it still takes at least 40 minutes to turn a plane in ORD.. that's my point. We can always cram in an extra flight at 730PM and return it to ORD, but that's not Eagle's decision but AMR's (since they control the scheduling).
I highly doubt that Eagle has 10 ERJs that sit in ORD for 2 to 3 hours at a time where they could do a turn to DBQ, AZO, or SPI.
So what I see happening is Eagle ALPA getting their way with regards to CHQ, which will result in CHQ laying off pilots (loss #1) (unless they move them to YX, which could happen, but probably not likely, there's only so many markets out of MKE that work)... AMR will then trim the overall schedule @ ORD to show the loss of 11 lines, where the consumer loses (#2), and cities like SPI, AZO, EVV, CMI, MLI, GRR, DBQ, LSE may see lost flights or be cut entirely (#3).
Eagle's block times don't change, they still get 22 more jets, but hey, Eagle ALPA showed AMR who is boss (again). Glad someone got something out of this move.
(for the record, I'd totally side w/ Eagle if their overall Block Hours were being cut, but from the looks of it, its an asset move to increase utilization & flying at other hubs).