Agreed. The Mesaba judge essentially deferred judgement on the issue (and limited his "liability") based on the previous similar ruling made in the NWA FA's court proceedings. Either way, I think it sucks for the labor groups.

There is some speculation though that the ruling (and subsequent "contract" imposition) will open the door for Mesaba to bring on additional aircraft (CRJs) in short order, which would also likely result in a bidding fiasco with PCL and possibly Compass.

I doubt that we'll see a whole lot of bailing out on the part of the pilots until things become a bit more clear about the future. There will certainly be plenty of gripes and a lot less motivation to get the job done, but I don't expect to see a mass exodus (at least not right now). If the ruling ends up standing on a final appeal, then things might get a bit more interesting.

That said, I don't think that there's anybody at Mesaba that isn't actively looking for something better...