I have a very credible source from Southern Utah that Skywest is looking very seriously at buying Eagle.

Look for the announcement in mid '08.

This will probably just allow eagle to grow. More outsourcing to crappy regional jobs and less better jobs at the majors.

Is his (or her) office on South River Road?

Sure is. Just across the street from Lowe's.

Always in the past they have stated that the potential sale was "an option". Today they are saying they are going to do it.

American Eagle has existed now for twenty years and has never had "great/good/better" management. It has been a stepchild of American from the beginning, and a place of exile for mediocre to downright execrable management throughout its history.

You're right. The excellent management people are at other carriers or in other industries.

Executive has always functioned as a quasi-separate entity.

Less better, indeed. This would be a way for a regional with cash to become a mega-regional without cash. So look around and identify the regional with the most cash to squander--the one most likely to want to become ridiculously large in sheer volume of capacity--and then bet on that regional to be a player in an acquisition.

The more likely scenario is a spin-off through an IPO, whereby AMR would simply receive a boatload of cash from the sale of stock, AE becomes its own public company entity, and other than that, nothing much changes.

Not much likelihood of that. They are now seriously cash strapped, and had to recently post a $90 million supercedes bond in conjunction with an $80 million judgement obtained by Hawaiian Air.

This is my thought exactly, and it is the route that makes the most sense to me. Look at this portion of jsled's original article post and it points right to the idea of an independent comapny with AA getting reduced rate feed.

"said AMR Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey. "We have worked hard over the years to build a regional airline that is fully capable of standing on its own and is well positioned to pursue growth opportunities outside of the AMR corporate structure."

Arpey noted that, in addition to AMR having put in place an independent American Eagle management structure, with a chief executive officer and chief financial officer, American Eagle also has a well-formed operational structure and organization and has produced independently audited financial results for the past several years. Earlier this year, American and American Eagle entered into a new regional flying agreement between the airlines that reflects market-based rates, which ensures that American continues to have access to quality feed on competitive terms. Arpey added that AMR's divestiture of American Eagle and the regional airline's ability to provide quality feed at competitive rates to other carriers, as well as American, will better position American Eagle to compete for new customers and growth opportunities in the future."

This will allow for Eagle to grow, which at the present time it cannot seem to do without permission from the mainline. May not be a bad thing for the pilot group either because with expansion comes upward movement. I may be way off base...after all, I'm not an airline guy.