I wonder if they'll give then the lovely option of the offer to hire all the Lynx pilots at the bottom of the list on an as needed basis, a la XJT summer 08.

I hate to pee in your Cheerios, but guaranteed contracts are quickly becoming extinct and will soon be a thing of the past. Legacy's have started making the regional take some of the risk too, and it will continue.

And let's not forget those "guaranteed" contracts only last until the major goes bankrupt. Ex-ACA guys can tell you all about that.

If we were to buy Lynx from RAH (which I doubt, personally), I'd expect Jerry to operate it as a wholly owned subsidiary and only with the understanding that INC. would be able to operate the Q400 (current and future airframes) for other airlines like United, Continental, and Delta. With payrates like those, why would you want to fold them into SkyWest?

This has been a topic of conversation at SKW. We suspect that JA will not keep Lynx separate...he would gain 100 bottom-feeder pilots on one hand, and lose 2800 pilots to ALPA on the other. Lynx probably isn't worth it.

Not always true: When SKYW bought ASA part of the deal was a new extended fee-for-departure codeshare deal for both SKYW and ASA and that SKYW would hold back $100 mil. of the purchase price for one year or until the guaranteed terms of the codeshare agreement were affirmed in BK court (DAL had not yet declared, but all signs indicated it was imminent).

SKYW got their contract re-affirmed and DAL got their cash.

If that rumor is true, beers on me...I'll take SKW any day.

WOW, nice slam on the guys Lynx there. Funny, Lynx has a few furloughed XJT pilots, as well as Mesa pilots that are making more than if they stayed at Mesa, as well as pilots furloughed from other carriers.

Help me remember, how much did SkyWest fly the 70/90 seat airframes for? And what affect did that have on other unionized airlines that negotiate pay rates? And how has that helped someone like you who gets to ride the coat tails? I wouldn't go so far as to say they (SKW) were "bottom feeders", but they hardly raised the bar or set a new standard.

Seriously, might want to rethink/rephrase what you think of those pilots.

Past voting records would not indicate that.

Are you familiar with what SkyWest wanted to do with XJT if they bought them out last summer?

Granted, for your SPECIFIC situation, it may work. But if you were a CA at Lynx, and was offered the sweet offer to be rehired at the bottom of the list with no upgrade in site, would you still say the same?

Good points. I'm looking at QOL and basing. With the current option I think we are headed east...not happy about that. Plus I have a pretty good idea of how SKW works.

Yeah that was a clever tactic to make sure they got that contract by leveraging ASA. However what about next time? If UA went Ch. 11 tomorrow what's not to say they cut SKW's contract in half? They don't have any assets that can be bought like ASA so there's nothing to pay your way into.

If US Air went tango-uniform and completely dissolved, there won't be an airline left to contract with. No amount of negotiating can save any regional attached to a dissolved major.