Good luck guys! Enough of the years of B.S., its great to see a pilot group taking a stand. Im over at XJ and you have my support my friends!

 

The NMB doesn't decide to "release" you to strike or not. If they issue a proffer of arbitration (what the union is asking for) and then either side declines to enter arbitration you go to a 30 day cooling off and then you are released to strike.

SO - The NMB offers to arbitrate, if you decline the off then you do 30 days then you are released to "self help". Once you decline the proffer the NMB can't do anything to stop you from striking.

Stoping a srike after the 30 day:

Durring the 30 day cooling off, the NMB will evalute a strike and inform the President, if the President wishes to advert a strike he will create a Presdiential Eval Bord. PEB usually has 30 days to develop a proposed agreement and present that agreement to the parties for consideration. After the PEB delivers its proposed agreement, there is a further 30-day cooling off period.

If the parties reject the PED agreement then they are relased to self-help after the seccond 30 day period.

The only way to stop a strike after this is done for Congress to mandate an agreement it with legislation.

SO if the NMB offers to mediate (issues a proffer of arbitration) the union can take it all the way to a strike unless in the end congress says no.

We all need to know how our CBA process works...

 

BTW, reserved N numbers means diddly squat.

 

I think even Trans States has reserved tail-numbers...and the only way they're growing is backwards!

 

It's only $10 to reserve one.

http://162.58.35.241/e.gov/NN/resreqform.asp

 

There are three factors that will determine where NWA places additional -900s. Cheap feed, building the value of the carrier's it owns, and cost of operating a -900 vs a -200.

NWA has never appeared concerned about spreading the fleet out. NWA wants the cheapest airlink feed possible, and that means keeping an entire fleet with one Airlink carrier. All the Avros all went to XJ. The first 139 -200's went to 9E. Then XJ was awarded some -200's, but after NWA went into chapter 11, all of the -200 flying was supposed to go back to 9E. Even all the Saab flying was shifted to one airlink carrier.

Now that NWA owns XJ, some of the 9E -200 flying is shifting to XJ. This only makes sense because NWA wants to build up the value of the Airlink that it owns. Until a few years ago, 9E was owned by NWA. NWA learned that they could buy a small mom and pop airline, build up it's value by awarding it lots of RJ's, and then sell it at a huge profit. Now they are doing it again. Since the only real value a regional has is it's contract with a major, NWA will build up XJ and then sell it off for another nice profit. Ditto for Compass. The last thing I would expect would be a XJ/Compass merger, since keeping them separate would mean two trips to the bank for NWA.

The only hope I see for 9E getting -900's in NW colors is the cost of operating -900's vs -200's. Its my understanding that the -900's are nearly as cheap to operate as a -200, and they have premium seats that business travelers love. Since NW is in bed with 9E for the next 10 years, they might as well get the most out of the deal.

 

Huh. Funny how Delta hasn't adopted the same model with Comair. If anything it's just the opposite: dilute the connection feed to absurd proportions and take AWAY flying from its wholly-owned subsidiary while Republic and the others grow like crazy.

 

NWA sure as heck does treat XJ better than DAL treats Comair. AA seems to be trying to replicate NWA's success with the 9E spinoff, except I don't think that will happen b/c of the high-cost/senior labor group + the aging fleet AE has.

But doesn't XJ have the ground servicing/mx contract for 9E anyways? If that was the case, I don't see why there would be any cost savings having all the 900s on the XJ certificate. Or is it just gate/ramp service that XJ provides?