Originally Posted by Panama Jones

There have been lots of rumors flying around. Some are pretty hard to believe. I have heard of Skywest, Inc. buying a Delta wholly owned (insert Compass, Comair and/or Mesaba) and merging it with ASA or Delta liquidating said wholly-owned and selling the parts to Skywest, Inc., which flying would then come to ASA. There's always the rumor of picking up the pieces when Mesa dies (assuming it ever does). There's also the rumor of picking up some USAirways flying, not to mention expanding our United flying.

Realistically, since ASA is acquiring four new -700s from Horizon it makes sense that the company may acquire more of them in the next year and a half. That's hardly a stretch. Also, BH alluded to possibly getting more United flying by the end of the year. That's hardly committal, and I have no idea where that flying would come from.

I did talk to someone from the training department (always a good source of rumors, and sometimes they even turn out to be true) the other day who had asked why ASA is hiring five more line check pilots and he was told "for future growth." He was of the opinion that the company has plenty of line check pilots now to train the returning furloughs, so he speculates that this is an indication of more to come.

I guess we'll see. Rumors are at least fun for entertainment purposes. My favorite was that ASA would fly its 6 extra -200s (now spoken for) for AirTran out of Orlando but be painted in SkyWest colors, so it would be Atlantic Southeast Airlines dba SkyWest Airlines for AirTran. And yes, I made that one up myself.