Northwest / Delta Regional Flying
 

For this thread, I thought it would be a good idea to get everyone to post any information you may have regarding NW / DAL regional flying. Ideally, post an article and cite the source and then discuss. Since the majority of talk at this point centers on the "mainline" NW and DAL, I thought it would be a good idea for us "regional" types to throw around what we know.

Here's what I've got.


Q. I fly from a smaller city on a regional jet. What will happen to that service?

A. There will be changes in who is flying those jets, but that's likely to be behind the scenes. Currently Delta owns regional carrier Comair, and Northwest owns Mesaba and Compass airlines. Delta has discussed selling Comair in the past. Delta CEO Richard Anderson said on Tuesday, "We will be optimizing both the number of carriers we have and where they operate to maximize the efficiency of that network."

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel...,4332814.story

That is CEO speak for, "do not worry investors, we have this stuff under control". When in reality, who know what is going on?

From the NW/Delta mereger press conference:
"Northwest owns Mesaba and Compass airlines, which are very efficient companies".......... (no Pinnacle mention)
Translation:
Mesaba and Compass will be OK and probably grow in a medium-long term.......Pinnacle........eeehhh.....well.......w e'll figure out a way to get rid of them....

Northwest doesn't own Pinnacle. That's why Delta only mentioned Comair, not ASA, Freedom, Chautauqua, Pinnacle, Shuttle America, and ExpressJet.

Only problem: Anderson and Uncle Phil are good buddies. Anderson built Pinchanickle.

This was all planned out a long time ago. I believe Pinnacle is the only regional with LONG term contracts that were RECENTLY signed for both carriers.
Contracts are not that easy to get out of, since neither carrier is in bankruptcy. Even with our crappy performance, it is not bad enough to cancel the contracts.

Pinnacle is in good shape. Once the pilots get a contract, performance numbers will be even better.

I'm with Spooled on this one because:

1. It makes sense.
2. It makes me feel better as a 9E FO.

For the rest of you Pinnacle People - hopefully the schedules go back to not sucking so hard next month.

And I'll be dizzammed if they're gonna scare me into voting in a crap contract.

just read our mec leaders message and keep flying a safe operation.

We are fortunate to have very robust, long-term air service agreements with both Delta and Northwest that will be binding on the new carrier. These agreements leave little wiggle room to be cancelled or modified before their expiration date as evidenced by Phil Trenary’s recent shareholder conference calls and the recent upgrading of our stock by J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan also went on to say that the airline offers a “unique combination of free cash flow and contract certainty” and “with legacy airlines searching (and finding) opportunities to scale back on their regional commitments, we see little risk for Pinnacle.” Many of our fellow Airlink/Connection carriers are not so fortunate in the terms or longevity of their service agreements and a few of them don’t even operate under the protections of a binding contract.


pinnacle will also see strong earnings for the next several years.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...2599398a94.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/investor...gn_id=rss_null

our mec leader also said that the scare tactics will begin and the company will all make us feel like our jobs are on the line. i remember when nwa declared bankruptcy they said the same things. infact they said that we would never get another contract with nwa before we had a pilot contract. well we know that wasn't true.

and whats even funnier is that on his last company call he said getting a pilot contract isn't important for getting new business or keeping the flying we have. i hope the mediator heard that and will release us. then we will see if he feels the same way when we are walking off property.

but once the merger is finalized by the end of the year non of us will have to speculate.

Ok. but here are some facts:
1. Mesaba and Compass are owned by NW (will be part of the new Delta)
NW has been investing in Mesaba and Compass, and yes....at some point they may want to sell both companies, but for know, they want them to grow and make money.
2. Pinnacle (with the exception of Delta Connection operation) is a pure 50 seater operator. Does the conctract give you the option to replace those 50 seaters for 76 seaters? YES. Have NW even mention the possiblity of giving PNCL 900s? NO. They might in the future, but for now 50 seaters got to go, and I don't think they will be able to replace them in a short term with 129 900s....
3. There's a 10 year contract, but I wonder........what's going to happen with that contract if we strike?

I don't want to sound all negative, but I think is time to look at the signs too. Rough times ahead......

1. being owned by delta/nwa means nothing. that is the problem there. infact if we were wholly owned i would be more worried than if we werent. if someone could clarify i would like to know if compass/mesaba/comair actually have binding contract for x amount of flying that they have to do. i think that is what S.E. was refering to when he said some of our buddies dont even have a contract. sure they mentioned their name in the conference call but that means nothing. did they mention skywest, no. is there a chance in hell they will get rid of their largest and one of their best regionals, no. so the easiest people you can cut back on regional flying would be the people that you own and have no contract with.

2. who cares about nwa anymore? delta will own nwa by the end of the year and guess who we have the 900 contract with? delta.

3. it wont matter. when we get released we will have a contract in 30 days and 30 seconds, like a guy on our boards says.

I think it's funny how Pinnacle guys think they are in "good" shape, while Mesaba guys think they too are in "good" shape. The fact is, nobody really knows at this point, so all we can do is wait...