Notice he didn't answer your question. Same reason United's TSA and Air Wisconsin experiments haven't quite worked out as planned. They didn't keep growing Commutair because they can't. Same reason they won't be getting rid of Xjt. No matter how "unprofessional" the MEC acts.

So let me ask you this, why is Commutair opening Chicago and Houston bases? Because of how well things are going at XJT? Maybe because United is going to pay Commutair a few dollars more than XJT and up their signing bonus. Let the growth happen there since the XJT experiment has failed.

You really want to know why you guys have no leverage? Because you’ve already demonstrated you won’t leave. They don’t have to pay you anything. You won’t go anywhere. When the pilot group shrunk from 4,000 to 1,200 you were the ones that stayed. If you didn’t leave then you sure as fire won’t leave now. You’ve already shown your hand.

That is now the value you bring. The pilot group that we never have to pay.

You avoided the question. Why didn’t United just use Commutair? They don’t have all of the senior lifers. Why did they invest in the most top heavy regional?

See above post. That is the direction they are heading.

Pilots are leaving faster than the company can hire. It is the attrition that is causing us to shrink, not the lack of new hires.

Why didn’t they do that to start with?

They want to grow the regional feed to ORD and IAH. XJT was already there. It was cheaper and faster to use XJT. Now the path of least resistance has shifted. SR XJT pilots are a liability that must be dealt with one way or another.

Maybe you should head on over to Commutair and grab that bonus and quick upgrade then.

When the timing is right. That’s certainly a better option than following your path.

Because UA didn’t have a choice. The UAX feed is falling apart.

SKYW was determined to shut down XJT after the CPA with UA was up. They could not make money with XJT.

UA spun up C5 and tried to move its assets over there. They could not get it together fast enough either so they had to salvage XJT.

BTW, what do you think would have happened to GoJet if there was no CRJ550? After the announcement that the CRJ 700 goes away (in exchange for the ERJ175) the place would have immediately imploded. So isn’t it convenient that there was a CRJ550 to the rescue?

It is all about protecting the feed.