Yeah, but you are now a DCI carrier and so the DCI scope clause may cause a problem for the 900 options, even the 700. Last I heard after the ALPA meeting last week was that DCI has maxed out the 76 seater scope clause. I thought the NWA merger would have opened that up with NWA mainline planes. But I guess the amount that you all had plus NWA regionals across the board maxed it out already also. So after the merger nothing changed just more mainline planes and more 700/900 that are already in service or on order. Only way to get more 700/900 is for DL to get more mainline planes.

A laugh or two
 

For Thanksgiving turkey dinner in Detroit! Wait, I think that came out wrong.........lol

Whydo you think it has nothing to do with a merger?Why have 3 wholly owned regionals with 3HR's,3 payrolls,3 managements,3 training depts,3mx ,3 pass depts,ect when they could combine and get rid of lots of layers or overlap?

Cant they combine mgt and the other stuff you listed, but keep the pilots seperate? Dont they already basically do that with Mesaba and Compass?

That would be bad. 3 way whipsaw... ouch

I'm almost glad I lost my class date...is there anything endearing to be said about 121 flying other than the actual flight time between gates?

I think we are all speculating at this point but merger between the three is unlikely. Morelikely scenario would be Compass merges with either Mesaba or Comair and then sold off. DAL would raise cash and have the rest to whipsaw against. Merging Mesaba with Comair is unlikely because both has too many senior pilots who would object to the merger whereas merging Compass with Comair or Mesaba would be relatively easy.

Last I heard there are 35 to 37 more 76 seat RJs for bidding in the DAL system. DAL has B777 on order and NWA has B787 on order.

Early buyout for senior Mesaba pilots makes sense for the management as Mesaba has many senior pilots who has at least 20 years in with Mesaba and getting close to age 60 or over.

What turkey dinner? I never got any dinners for Thanksgiving or Christmas.....

Well if you are on reserve, it can't be on call 24/7 like in 135.....
otherwise, I got nothin.

I'd be shocked to see more Than 10 pilots (out of almost 1200) take this early retirement.... This isn't anywhere close to the buyout offered to the Delta guys a year or two ago..... If Southwest hadn't suspended classes maybe some of those poolies would have taken it but then again if that were the case the company likely wouldn't be offering the early out...