posted on another forum. These are not my opinions, but wondered what people thought.
Take this with a grain of salt, but there is a rumor circulating that with Mesa in Chapter 11, Air Wisconsin, who has been desperately trying and failing to grow beyond their USAirways contract, is looking to buy Mesa in bankruptcy. This would make sense for Air Wisconsin for more reasons than I can count. That being said, it is just a rumor and you are also dealing with Johnny O's ego in any transaction involving Mesa.
However, here is how I feel such a transaction would play out. I think if Mesa is bought by Air Wisconsin people, it will be bought by Eastshore Aviation, and not Air Wisconsin themselves. Eastshore Aviation would become the parent company of both Mesa and Air Wisconsin and in a sense, become a holding company like SkyWest and RAH. With both Mesa and Air Wisconsin being ALPA groups, a combined seniority list becomes very likely. If I am correct in my knowledge of the situation, Air Wisconsin pilots would be more senior than Mesa pilots as a whole. With the CRJ-200s going out at United and the Delta contract seemingly going bye bye, you have CRJ-200s and 900's at USAirways on the Mesa side, and 200's on the ZW side, and also 700's with United at Mesa. My prediction would be that Eastshore would maintain two certificates, one for CRJ-200's only, which would remain ZW for logistical reasons, and one for the UA 700 flying and the US 900 flying, which would be the YV certificate. With a merged seniority list though, the YV flying would wind up being what is currently the senior ZW guys (The ex 146 captains) who would all bid ORD, and then the rest is who knows. I would also look for most of the PHX HQ positions to be moved to ATW, and the combined companies HQ remains in ATW.
I am not sure I believe the rumor myself, but I have been surprised many times in this industry. If this is true, what do you guys think will happen?