I'm a little curious who you work for. If it is one of the three companies mentioned above, I would recommend you discuss the issue with one of the other 700+ pilots you work with. If not I would say that this is not the best forum to get a factual information. You will get the whole spectrum of opinions however.

The truth is nothing has been settled with the Frontier/Midwest/Republic/Lynx integration. Until then, it's just a wild guess. As a Frontier pilot, I was a bit insulted by the Southwest offer. From speaking to some friends at Southwest, I would say they were a bit stunned (and insulted) by Frontier's rejection of their offer. Just my take on the situation.

 

+1, keep fishing....

 

I agree, you make good points for all four cases. There will be no whipsaw. The lists will be integrated by the end of May. As for the leadership, unproven in the arena they have enter is true, but they have done an excellent job up to this point. There is tremendous upside to this as well as downside. Only time will tell.

 

One thing that has not been brought up is the time line was very short and a deal between groups was almost impossible considering the starting positions of both groups. This is of course unfortunate because the industry needs less competition not more. Denver still will not sustain three large operations and sooner or later someone will leave. But before this happens the bleeding will continue. In ten years you will know which was a better deal.

 

If you were the #1 guy at Frontier, you'd think otherwise. Go ask him.

 

don't feed the fire, specially if he's the captain. Some 4-stripers think they know everything and will not accept loosing an argument to an F/O. Trust me, they can't and they won't, they have to be right....

I say change the subject or just let'em run his mouth

 

If I personally were the #1 guy, not if I were the person who is in the #1 spot.

Working under the republic umbrella is going to lead to constantly declining work rules, quality of life, and pay. Its never going to be the same. Its going to turn into nothing but flying for a regional airline with bigger airplanes.

Not only that, but I honestly don't think they'll even be around much more than a few years. Republic's contracts are all coming up for review in the next 5-7 years and they're ripe for replacement with another carrier. Republic knows nothing about running a real airline that has to make a profit and provide service and those sorts of things. They bought off more than they can chew and it the other airlines are already starting to circle like vultures, especially Southwest.

 

My two cents worth....

First off, thank you for attempting to stay informed on the workings of the this profession. Too many pilots just go fishing, and are thusly uninformed on how this industry works. When asked how they might vote on a certain pilot issue, they might reply "I dunno, I don't understand all that Union stuff". Great to have you in the trenches buddy.

Sorry I didn't answer your question about how to argue your particular case; but I do appreciate you staying informed..."Those who ignore or fail to understand History are bound to repeat it" (or something like that)

 

I have to ask, where do you propose they go? I am very lucky in that I have not been furloughed (yet). But if the acquiring company is strong enough not to have any furloughs, strictly from a "career expectations" standpoint, why should the acquired company's furloughed pilots expect more than a staple?

Should a furloughed Frontier guy have been senior to a non-furloughed Southwest guy? Really? I have no dog in this fight, but I'm curious to see how you justify your position.

 

Only time will tell what was the smart thing to do. There are NO guarantees for any of us.

Just to add to the discourse though, if I remember correctly, Denver would have become a SWA domicile almost immediately. Additionally, it would have been fenced off for F9 pilots for a period of time, guaranteeing their seniority positions as long as they didn't bid out of Denver.

All F9 pilots (who weren't furloughed) would have been pay protected or received a raise up to SWA levels.

On the "bummer" side, I'm pretty sure that SWA would have furloughed up to 100 F9 pilots and pretty much eliminated a lot of the non-flying jobs in Denver. Additionally the Frontier brand would have gone away.

I wish we could have found a way to make it work for all of us, but in the end, I think it was impossible given the time constraints. I also think that RAH wanted F9 much worse than SWA did.