Pinnacle/Colgan = the next Big Sky/Mesaba?
 

Mesaba guys know this all to well, your company is making money but the other half of your Holding company is losing money, therefore the "parent company" (Mair holdings) declares bankruptcy and gets to impose a contract on the company that was making money (mesaba). They then sell that company and the cycle starts all over again.
Big Sky did it to Mesaba and due to the fact that all Colgan seems to do is lose money, it seems that Pinnacle could be headed in the same direction. Pinnacle Airlines Inc. is a profitable company but if Colgan continues to lose 4 to 5 million a quarter, whos to say that Pinnacle Corp (the holding company for both) doesnt declare bankruptcy in a year or two, and then we go through the same crap that mesaba went through. That is why the arbitrators decision to force the company to meet with our union to merge colgan and pinnacle together is so important.

Any thoughts on this?

Disclaimer: this is not a rumour, no one at pinnacle has ever mentioned this ever happening, just something I believe could happen.

Big Sky was used against the mesaba pilots back during the 2004 contract negotiations. The 2005 bankruptcy of XJ was not caused by big sky. Also MAIR did not go bankrupt during XJ's bankruptcy. Instead NWA chose to reject leases on half of our aircraft as well as miss payments prior to the bankruptcy filing at NWA.

I in no way defend Colgan, however Colgan has been profitable for all the years BEFORE Pinnacle bought Colgan.

Yeah but oil wasn't where it is now. The geniuses over on Nonconnah decided to buy an airline (Colgan) where they had to pay for fuel although we already had an airline (Pinnacle) that was efficient, making money and had somebody else paying for fuel (NWA).

If the operation goes belly up, I hope Trenary and gang get sued by the PNCL shareholders...

Great points.

I think you're about to see some SERIOUS changes over at Colgan in the next year.

All of Colgan's SAAB codeshare operating agreements are Pro-Rate. Which means Colgan burdens fuel, MX, landing fees, gate space, ticketing systems. They don't have a "CONTRACT" with any majors, just a pro-rate agreement. Breaking this down further Colgan gets all the 1 way passenger fares (SYR-LGA) however if a PAX was connecting SYR-LGA-CLT-MCO they would only get a small portion of the connection passengers fare. Same on the United Express and Conti Connex side of the SAAB operation.

Trenary hates pro rate. You're too vulernable to the crazy industry. He wants out of these contracts and wants all Capacity Purchase Agreements- (Q400).

The US Airways Agreement is up in Oct 2008. Expect that contract to either be completely eliminated or cutback A LOT.

The United Agreement is up in Dec 2008, expect that one to be trimmed substantially.

The Houston Continental Connection Agreement is up in 2010, however that side of the operation is one of their stronger ones, so I expect that to be renewed, or become a Capacity Purchase Agreement.

Colgan owns 25 or so SAABs, the rest are leased. I expect many SAABs to go back to Sweden.

When you cut SAABs you then have unused flight crews- expect those crews to be transitioned to the Q400. Which is why I think they have stopped hiring into the Q and SAAB. The Q400 will grow. I personally think they picked up the options without a codeshare agreement just to get their hands on them before Skywest or Horizon can get any more.

The Beeches will be gone by Oct- if not sooner.

But either way, things are rumbling over there. On a bright note, their Q400 operation is starting to pick up steam as they get used to the airplane. But from what I heard that thing is a MX nightmare.

New Airplane = MX Nightmare

my mistake, I thought that is what happened.

Maybe, If Chuck cut back on the pancakes a bit, the company would save some money, unfortunately, the way he eats, Waffle House would then suffer a loss...

Big sky didn't do anything to Mesaba. Mair holdings screwed both airlines

Absolutely... It was far worse ultimately for Big Sky than it was for Mesaba.
If it weren't for Mair, Big Sky would still be a small happy EAS airline and we'd still have the Avros.... well ok maybe not.

ha ha ha!!! that made my day