Richard has been beating the "Consolidation" drum ever since he showed up. Consolidation is the opposite of Growth.

Consolidation is 7+5 = 11, not 13.

Even if he does buy HA or bits of AA, don't look for growth or pilot hiring, there will be further reductions in anything that overlaps our current routes, oh and don't forget the Alaska code shares and aditional International code sharing as well.

This T/A will increase the ALV by two hours, and up reserve utilization...will that cause hiring? Or will it simply help to replace anyone who leaves early? And, if not too many do, it will cause further surpluses as more trans Atlantic flying is pulled down come fall.

Ahhh...smell that?

That's the sweet smell of Synergy.

Yeah, we'll never hire again. Never. Btw, the slot swap at LGA had mostly USair props doing the flying, to small cities from LGA, like Ithaca, NY. Would you put an A319 on that route? An RJ is an upgrade for those routes, and if some bigger routes need a 717 upgrade, they may get it.

Well of course they are going to have to hire some pilots...some day, but that will be a result of guys turning 65, not a result of this T/A.

There's no way to spin management's deceptive and disingenuous campaign to court our slot-swap support as a win for our pilot group.

Run for the hills!!! More people are flying every year though. The Recession may not have helped, but yoy the numbers keep growing. The European pull down wont be permanent unless Europe burns to the ground.

Maybe you could have done research first? I knew about it, just by taxiing behind the multitude of Piedmont Dash 8s and Colgan Saabs at LGA in USair colors. Looks like you weren't paying attention.....

Didn't they tells us there will be hiring for that also. Taking the bait again.

Yes, I should have done more research. But not to fear, I won't make the mistake of trusting the company and my "union" again.

One wonders why our "union" failed to assist us in our due diligence instead of (again) leaping at the chance to ingratiate itself to the company. And it's happening again right now. Why are we paying 2%, when we're forced to vet the most important issues of our careers--INCLUDING THIS TA--without their objective, good-faith analysis? DALPA is clearly not looking out for us.

I don't know why we call our 2% penalty "dues," when it should be called an "Involuntary Donation to The RJ Assistance and Improvement Fund."

I don't remember that. I think they said it would be good for us as a company, which helps our group also. If you knew which slots were being swapped (like Saab routes to Providence, Manchester, Ithaca, Bangor, Burlington, etc from LGA), you would have concluded they might be too small for A319s or DC9s (our smallest planes at the time). Some of the proposed routes that are different, like LGA to DFW and IAH, may be right for future 717s. That plane may be the perfect size for a lot of those longer, higher density routes.

Have you seen anything in writing that guarantees mainline growth? Me neither. Those 717s may be nothing more than (lower paying) MD-88 replacements.

But hey, feel free to p!ss yourself over adding low paying narrowbodies with absolutely no guarantee that any mid- or long-term growth will result

Bill, change your pants, and take comfort that 717s are coming with or without this TA