Well here we are...still in shock of the Compass and Mesaba transaction...without the dust settling from that...BOOM...another transaction that ASA is going to merge with Expressjet. Although there has been little to no talk about it...I believe we are on the dawn of the Super Regional Airlines. But what does that mean? Never before in the history of aviation has there been this magnitude of mergers. Yes...we know that consolidation needs to take place to be efficient for management...but what does that mean to the pilots that caught in the mist of this battle?

In two years time, I feel that this industry is going to be very interesting. Lets look at the facts for a moment.(And I am sure there are more statistics but these are just a few off the top of my head)

AGE 65----December 2012

New 1500 rule passes

Low Pay on the Regional Level

The decreasing demand for 50 seaters

Fuel prices remaining high

Consolidation seems to be the best option for Majors and Regionals...yes I get that.

But where does that put us as a collective profession of Airline Pilots? What does management have up their sleeve to further reduce cost to increase their profit margins and keep the share holders happy?

And most important...How do we take advantage of managements need to consolidate on the regional level? With the dawn of the super regionals upon us and the merging war still going on...Do we need to think of merging unions as in Major and Regional to work collectively together to establish goals?

These are just some thoughts that I have had over the past few weeks and would enjoy a discussion on this topic to see others thoughts and inputs on the manner. I rather us (Airline Pilots) be ahead of the game rather than standing by and get abused from the upper level management sorts.