I didn't say you started the rumor, I was just looking for details.

I know a bunch of folks who are there now and they mostly seem happy with their employment...

incorrect. The entire plan is to sell mesaba and compass once they get the airlines going. Pinnacle was sold in 3 years. i can gaurantee they want to do that or better when it comes to mesaba and compass. its all about making the bling my friends. they bought the compass cert for 1 million dollars. i wonder how much the cert will go for now?

You can guarantee? WOW, bold statement! I'm sure that might be the plan but I'd never guarantee, no matter what they've done in the past.

The cert was ACA/IA's. Anyone could have purchased it, but no one did until many years after their fall from grace. They reason why Mesaba and Compass will be attractive buy's isn't their cert’s. It's the fact that anyone who buys them will get guaranteed long term flying from MWA. Much like SKW did with DAL when they purchased ASA. You can bet that 9E, SKW, XJT and RAH will be in the hunt for that business.

You're not peein' in my cheerios....I don't want RAH to have anything to do with Compass.

I don't doubt that NWA intends to make some cash off of Compass at whatever time it's most advantageous for them to do so, whether that be a spinoff IPO, sale to another company, or parting it out. I'm just a little skeptical about Republic given that I haven't seen one person back up the rumor with solid facts and the only people spreading the rumor are RAH pilots gleefully brandishing their staplers...

I love my stapler!

What is up with you people? You need to stop throwing out bad information.

Duck: The money you are referring to is RAH's claim in Delta's bankruptcy. It has nothing to do with Comair. And to go further, RAH sold that claim for half the price to an undisclosed entity. Granted that entity may have been disclosed since then, but that does not matter.

As Boiler said, it just does not make sense for RAH to buy Comair anyway. BB has been asked this on every confrence call since Delta said they would be open to the idea of selling Comair. BB's answer(everytime), no we are not looking to grow in that fashion.

So listen up everybody, when it comes to RAH buying Comair, forget it. I believe that the Compass thing would happen before any Comair thing would. Not to say the Compass thing would happen.

The only place I ever hear this rumor get spread is on this board. Get over yourself.

Personally, I'm happy the real world (it's the place outside of your hotel room) does not operate like this. Every day it's another "Your company sucks because of this..." "My company is taking over this..." blah blah blah. Personally, I'm going to start a rumor that Skywest voted down ALPA because they're becoming communists and have plans to merge with AMTRAK and Greyhound to control the countries modes of transportation. This will be endorsed by Comair when they merge seniority lists with Delta on a 3-1 basis with UAL stapled at the bottom. Oh, and selected members from the pilot groups at RAH and XJT are going to meet at the next Wrestlemania to determine once and for all whose going to start flying outsourced CAL 787's. Colgan's going to be the special guest referee.

Unless it's sittin' on the ramp painted, it's all a bunch of crap.

Was the "get over yourself" aimed at me, Sharky? Because I'm essentially in agreement with the rest of your post...

It's basically aimed at the growing number of folks I see on here complaining about the ego of RAH pilots then telling us how their contract is better, their company is better, their flying is better, their airplane is better etc. etc. etc. Not you in particular, just something I noticed over the past couple of months that everyone seems to enjoy taking more and more potshots at our company. Personally, we're pilots. Every single person on this board has an ego. Mine barely fits in the cockpit, my friends will tell ya. It would just be nice if people knew what the hell they were talking about before they started talking.

Or you might not know what your talking about. The pilots of Comair got 82.5 million dollar claim. We didn't own 83 millions worth of Comair, we had a 82.5 million dollar stake in the reorganized Delta. You don't own Comair's Debt, RAH only only holds 91 million worth of Delta stock. You have to sell your stock to get the cash.

Comair doesn't exist in a financial sense, it is just a name on part of the the Delta balance sheet. There is no "Comair debt", it is Delta debt.

i have only been here 2 years and i can GUARANTEE! :cool: that all they want to do is sell off mesaba and compass. NWA has NEVER been in the regional business, they have bought and sold pinnacle so many times that there is almost a trend that shows no sign of change, and they don't want to be in the regional business. like i said they bought the cert for 1 mil. yes you are right but no body wanted to purchase it till it was dirt cheap, and that is when nwa moved in. now when they sell they will be selling a cert that will be up to date and give the holder at least 10 years of nwa flying. yes compass and mesaba will be sold, its just a matter of a few years or less.

Actually, we don't even own $91 million worth of Delta debt. We sold our claim to an "undisclosed" buyer for something in the $40 million range. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Wexford. Either way, we have nothing to do with Comair and hopefully never will. TD's got me all confused on his logic about this.

I absolutely agree with the theory and I'm sure both will be sold, but none the less guarantees are bold statements.

When NWA does decide to sell they'll turn a handsome profit as companys bid for their futures.

Hmm, ok. I didn't realize people were taking time out of their busy Mesa-bashing schedules to turn on RAH pilots. T'wasn't my intent - was just saying that NWA will probably sell Compass when it suits them, but the RAH speculation is just that, and its primary proponents on this thread seem to be those who think they'd have something to gain from it - which is just one reason I remain skeptical. That's all I was saying, no dig at RAH pilots in general intended. Ok, back to the regularly scheduled Mesa bashing!

No major airline today can survive without getting involved in regional flying simply because more and more major airlines are shifting domestic flying to the regionals and concentrate on international flying which is more lucrative. NWA has always meddled in regional flying so to make a statement that NWA has never been in the regional business is absurd. The fact that NWA has owned and sold Pinnacle is a case in point.

NWA will probably sell Compass first and then Mesaba after NWA has built up Mesaba further, but this a pure speculation at best. For now, NWA seems content to build up Mesaba as evidenced by fast and furious growth at XJ with all the new destinations being added on a monthly basis.

Word at XJ is that XJ will probably wind up getting more than 17 CRJ 200s when it's said and done, but this is again unsubstantiated at the moment. More certain is that XJ will get more than 36 CRJ 900s by the end of 2008.

SWA has done just fine without a regional partner...... and they are certianly a MAJOR carrier.

they are a major by size and income, but the way they operate i would classify them as a very large independant regional!

I do manage to do that sometimes. Maybe I'm the one getting confused. As stated everything is just rumor but the talk around the watercooler is that the money was moved back to Wexford which has obvious ties to us. We didn't sell the 91mil for $40mil we spent around $40mil buying our stock back then sent $40mil of dept to someone else. It was almost an even trade.

To the above statement then lets clarify a few things. I use RAH probably when I shouldn't. I'll use Wexford more to be accurate. No they do not have a literal 91mil claim in Comair, you are correct in saying it's part of Delta Holdings. Comair and Delta are two separate companies though. They can be sold separatly. It's rumored that the additional debt was picked up by Wexford. When Delta comes out of bankruptcy it's liable for the 91mil stake that Wexford has in it. With steady talk of Delta looking to sell off Comair AND looking for something with good performance/business practices to take over the flying it would seem that the $91mil plus our companies current relationship with Delta could be maneuvered to secure Comair. RAH bought the stock back from Wexford then in turn sold the debt to an "undisclosed" entity. The money swapped was almost equal. I believe it was a maneuver to position them better for a purchase.

As far as why I feel it would benefit the company. Well as I stated once iI don't think it's about the planes. Someone else put it best when someone mentioned the planes. His words: It's not about 50 seat RJs. It's about Fees for Departure and another 15 year marketing agreement. It's about increasing revenue streams, thus more profits. For the Mainline, it's about a stable, seamless, quality, partner in the outsourcing process to increase feed. There appears to be no other buyer with the resources to make the acquisition that makes sense. A sales contract can be written that will protect both party's interest.

Obviously I'm not management here and could be wrong as all hell but this was started as a discussion on RAH picking up Compass. My views or opinions are my own and I don't expect everyone to agree. If I fuge up a little here or there by not being as technically accurate as the next then sorry on that part. I wasn't setting out to write a thesis on it. Like it or don't like it that's up to you but don't make attacks over it. It's an opinion and it's mine.


On another note. I was under the belief that you can't own stock in a bankrupt company. Basically through RAH and Wexford 91mil of money was sent to Delta to help them reorganize etc. There isn't actual stock. The company can't turn it into anything more than it already is can they? Isn't it money Delta owes Wexford?

You get 91 million dollars of the reorganized (post-bk) Delta (not the Delta in BK). Delta has been out of BK for a while. No it isn't cash per say, it is stock that you would have to sell to get cash for it.

Delta is out of BK but they still have a ton of debt to pay don't they?

Yea, whats your point?