Atlantic Southeast Rumors
 

Whats all this I keep hearing about you guys hiring 400 new pilots within the next year?

I also heard Skywest Inc. possibly buying a wholly owned DCI carrier from Delta and merging it with Atlantic Southeast?

:confused::confused:

Where did you hear this rumor and who do you fly for?

Hey relax...I'm asking the questions around here.

Heard it from a couple of ASA pilots. I fly for a reputable regional (one of the taller midgets in the room)....that's all you need to know. :o

SkyWest, along with several other regional holding companies. are bidding for Mesaba and Compass. ASA has been instructed to "be prepared" in case we win the bid, which of course, they expect to.

If they don't win, I wonder if this place will collapse in the Fall?

That's a new one on me...

How did THAT rumor get started, and who else is bidding?

Are you trailblazer?:confused: Or is your source the person username trailblazer.:rolleyes:

I am bidding. So far the bid is up to two oreo's a thin mint and a hilshire farm turkey sandwich.

Funny, I thought there is no such thing... ;) So would that make you like, Gary Coleman or something?! (too soon?!)

go meat! .

So thats how you beat me. I went with the great value turkey.

LOL! That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. "Bidding for a company" isn't even possible right now for ASA or Skywest, but I wouldn't expect you to understand that.

+1. Ha Ha. Good one. Let's see he says he is at one of the reputable ones, could that be GoJet? Or maybe SkyWest. At any case, we could not care less. Only reason I asked where he works is because he says he heard this "rumor" so I want to know if he heard that at his workplace or from a cashier at McDonalds.

It's funny how everyone laughs at ASA rumors, so far the last five that I know of have been spot on.

CRJ 900 (2009) - FACT
ASA and United (2009) - FACT
Furloughs (2009) - FACT
AirMekong (2009 - 2010) - FACT and also the biggest laughed at rumor
Recall (2010) - FACT
Purchasing another airline (2010) - Lets just wait and see!

We are not laughing at the rumor. We are laughing at the guy who said he is at one of the reputable regionals so he is one of the bigger midget in the room.

Hey, we all know anything can happen in this business so it's possible SkyWest approached DAL's RA and asked him if he would sell one of the WO regional.

Double posted on accident, disregard

Insert random fact and hope to be right in the future.....2010
Throw out erroneous data and spout poetic to appear prophetic....2010
Wasting our time until these things come true...current

Is it possible that i fly for ASA????? :eek:

Who knows?????

So far this rumor seems to have some traction....sort of....I keep hearing that Delta is trying to offload a couple wholly owned carriers. Skywest Inc has close to 800 million in the bank....they could buy all the wholly owned DCI's i believe.

I think this has been going around for a while --

ASA to acquire another airline??

ASA announcement?

or

confused about this ASA thing

Why would any company want to buy a wholly owned? There is nothing that is of any value. What would they be buying? Just a contract with Delta for some flying? With Mesaba it would be flying for 16 200's which no one in their right mind would want to buy, 28 turbo props that will be gone soon and then 30 something 900's. I doubt anyone would be willing to buy this operation. Delta will be asking a price that encompasses a bunch of flying that will soon be gone, why would anyone buy a contract for flying that will be gone in a year?

So are you saying that SkyWest Inc. has not put in an offer for them. Ok...

How would extending and expanding a very lucrative contract with Delta not be valuable? Especially since their ASA contract with DAL is up to be amended this Fall. 16 200s must have short term value since Delta just dropped Mesa's 135s and still needs the lift. Proof of this is that DAL just decided to renege on eliminating all 20 of ASA's 200s and asked ASA to put 6 of them back in service. Yes, the Saabs are leaving. Good riddance. As for the 30 900s, that would be the golden ticket, wouldn't it? Especially since 76 seaters are the way of the future, yet are scope limited. SkyWest Inc. wants as many as they can get, and the only way is to transfer them from another DCI carrier.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Let's explore why you think all of this flying will be gone in 1 year. Do you know something the rest of us don't? Please share...

What he said ^^^^^^^

Well I guess it is a done deal then. What a great deal for Skywest. Can I be based in Palm Springs?

If Skywest bought up all the wholly owned DCI carriers then DAL wouldnt be able to manipulate any regional feed the way they can with the wholly owned carriers currently. I think it would be smart to buy up the competition in Skywest's case, so that they can raise their own rates (especially since Republic is getting away from the regional feed game).

I'm not prophesying anything. I'm merely identifying a progressive trend that has developed since the close of 2008. When the source is coming from SH, it clearly is not by divine inspiration.

ASA buying GoJet...you heard it here first.

There are more ties there than you probably realize...

It appears as if industry is going to see something similar to regulation from the government. Someday there will only be a few legacy carriers, low cost air carriers, and a few regional/contract airlines when the dust settles from this economic transformation.

Hmm SKYW bought ASA from DAL.....just saying!

Hoser
ROLL TIDE!

This is THE most interesting point brought up to date, a lot of former Atlantic Southeast guys are there with the last round of furloughs being offered preferential interviews/hires over there. With them being all 70's that would fit into the DL plan of no more 50's. They fly UX so that would be a no-brainer to plug us into those planes and operate the same system. Also it would be nice to see an airline created in turmoil get turned on it's head and possibly give some TSA guys their just dues.....IMHO

There have been lots of rumors flying around. Some are pretty hard to believe. I have heard of Skywest, Inc. buying a Delta wholly owned (insert Compass, Comair and/or Mesaba) and merging it with ASA or Delta liquidating said wholly-owned and selling the parts to Skywest, Inc., which flying would then come to ASA. There's always the rumor of picking up the pieces when Mesa dies (assuming it ever does). There's also the rumor of picking up some USAirways flying, not to mention expanding our United flying.

Realistically, since ASA is acquiring four new -700s from Horizon it makes sense that the company may acquire more of them in the next year and a half. That's hardly a stretch. Also, BH alluded to possibly getting more United flying by the end of the year. That's hardly committal, and I have no idea where that flying would come from.

I did talk to someone from the training department (always a good source of rumors, and sometimes they even turn out to be true) the other day who had asked why ASA is hiring five more line check pilots and he was told "for future growth." He was of the opinion that the company has plenty of line check pilots now to train the returning furloughs, so he speculates that this is an indication of more to come.

I guess we'll see. Rumors are at least fun for entertainment purposes. My favorite was that ASA would fly its 6 extra -200s (now spoken for) for AirTran out of Orlando but be painted in SkyWest colors, so it would be Atlantic Southeast Airlines dba SkyWest Airlines for AirTran. And yes, I made that one up myself.

This precisely why it is unlikely DAL will sell its WO to SkyWest. Selling it to SkyWest would go against what RA has stated in his recent past interviews. He already said he wants to keep a tighter control over the quality and keep most of the DCI flying inhouse. Plus, DAL does not want SkyWest to get any bigger than it already is. If DAL sells its WO it will most likely be to a third party investment corporation or to its subsidiary holding corporation it already owns. DAL would just transfer the ownership to the holding corporation. Before the merger, NWA had already set one up known as the Mesaba Compass Holding Corporation and DAL inherited it after the merger.

The Comair and Compass bidding rumor is coming from SH? If it is then its clearly credible because everything he has slipped to the pilot group in recurrent has eventually come true.

Don't kid yourself. Delta doesn't want to own any regionals. They do want to in the future change the way regionals are paid and make them more liable for their operations. They don't want to keep flying "in house" and that has been proven by the way things have been going. Delta/NWA has or has wanted to sell every regional they have ever owned. I have no doubt that they are trying to sell their wholly owned regionals. Which ones and to who is anyones guess. Yes I am sure they want fewer carriers flying for them. But moving flying in house is not what they want. In house flying is their way of getting rid of airframes they don't want anymore.

You've been singing that tune for what almost two years now? Well XJ is still owned by DAL and so is CZ and Comair. NWA set up CZ using the Independence Air certificate, that's not a news. It's fun to speculate but no one seems to have any hard facts to substantiate this rumor and this rumor has been floating around for over 2 years now.

Well you just cant buy and sell airlines on a whim. ASA was owned by Delta at one time. Pinnacle was owned by NWA at one time. Mesaba was even owned and sold before. Independence Air was owned by someone else and sold. Even the mighty NWA was bought by Delta. Unless you are the one out there doing the buying and selling then chances are you will switch hands at one point. Some one out there has to want it and Delta has to make the deal sweet enough. The truth is the wholly owneds are taken a beating right now (except for compass). Delta said they wanted to cut capacity and they are mainly using their wholly owneds to do it. Do I think contract carriers are at risk? Absolutely. Just look at Freedom. But it took law suits and court battles to do to them what a phone call could do the the wholly owneds. Those are the facts.

I don't know how anyone on here can claim to know what Delta does and does not want to do. I'm pretty sure Delta does not even know.

I'm not claiming to "know" what Delta wants. I am going off of Delta/NWA's past dealings and the way things are going now to come to a conclusion about what I think they want to do. You are right its anyones guess.

Its like here at Pinnacle right now. The NMB released Spirit. We are in DC right now for three days negotiating with the NMB. Three different groups have been released to go on strike by this NMB. Could they tell us no? Sure they could. Do I think they will? No. Their track record seems to point to being labor friendly and thats what I would place my bets on.

It's nice to see someone on here who is seeing the light. I have been posting things like this for a while. What you have placed in your post is spot on. I have for some time been telling people at Comair what is coming their way. You have pretty much repeated what I have said.

The precise reason why I don't want to go to an airline right now.

Why does everybody have such a hard on to grow at another regionals expense? You should want regionals to get smaller not bigger. I don't want to be at regional my whole life and get abused. Regionals will always suck. Pilots really are their worst enemy. It's embarrassing.