I wasn't commenting on mesa's chances of getting more flying in general. I was pointing out that UA hates 50 seaters, and only wants 70's. If they lose their argument with CAL-ALPA odds are that they will have to add 50 seaters going forward, or maybe even downsize some 70's to 50's if they really get their butt handed to them. Just saying they are not going to to be adding 50's until that debate is resolved.

But regarding mesa and UA...there's some bad blood. That could be a problem if OJ and cohorts stay in charge.

Also the engine that drove the old mesa was not low costs...in my opinion their operational stupidities ate up a lot of their cost savings. What they really had going for them was that lucrative sweetheart deal with the AW 900's. That is now reduced to what one assumes are market rates, and mesa is very small for a jet regional. Their economies of scale for overhead (training, admin, MX, management, etc) are not good, most of their peers in that size range are wholly owned. I suspect this means that mesa will not be able to automatically undercut all other bidders going forward (unless they bid flying at a loss).

It's a shame that they couldn't have pulled off a regime change...that was what I really wanted to see out of this mess.