I would have to agree with Mesabah. We had 300+ depart during the scamruptcy. And it was rather obvious that the crap going on then was temporary and Avro replacements would be arriving soon after the process was completed. This time around there is no recovery on the horizion.

The commutes are becoming near impossible already and add numerous people having to go to outstation bases that Colgan has or numerous more people trying to get to ATL on soon to be much worse travel benefits, yea many of us will not stick around. I have the resumes ready.

I would stay in DTW on a 50 seater or Q400 but you can forget me trying to commute to any Colgan base. And ATL, SLC, and MEM are nearly impossible from DTW. I couldn't commute anywhere on reserve under Pinnacle reserve rules and treatment so unless I can stay in DTW I will one way or another not be on reserve anymore. I am not the only one in this situation. Nor the only one looking to leave now.

 

So would the pilots that don't goto Pinnacle, and instead merge with Colgan, keep flying under the Mesaba contract until the merger is complete and a whole new mesaba/colgan contract can be negotiated?

I'm thinking they would and that is a huge reason not to want to go to Pinnacle with the jets.

My next question is in our contract, under the asset transfer language, do we bid on who goes with the transfered planes by seniority? Or is it an out of seniority order, whomever is already qualified on those planes sort of thing?

 

Yeah but that was during the hay day when all the majors and regionals where hiring everyone they could get. There really is no were else to go. Unless everyone at mesaba already has a flying gig somewhere else all lined up and ready to go I think most the mesaba guys will hang around even if they hate it. Either that or they are to senior to care and were retiring anyway. Mesaba pilots will just bide their time here just like the rest of us. No one who wants to move on or up to something else is going to go to the street before things really start to pick up and hiring at the majors resume. There are some very important boxes on the applications for all major airlines. Flight time in 60 days, 90 days and last year. Ask some of the retired air force guys that fly here at pinnacle about what they were told after flying the desk for the last few years of their service. They are all here at pinnacle because southwest, delta, fedex, ups all said you need to get current before we can look at you. I would even imagine that being an interview question. "Why didn't you stay with the flying job you had?" Of course as smart as they are they will know why and it might not look to good that you gave up the company because of a base closure or realignment.

Just hang in there guys. Things are going to be opening up on a grand scale at the majors in the next little while. Trying to get back in the industry at that level is next to impossible.

 

Is anyone else starting to feel like this with regard to the major airlines?

Don't worry keep going soon it's going to open up, the pilot shortage is just around the corner.......

 

It depends. If all you are doing is listening then yes it sounds like that. When I was hired here 5 years ago the majors were hiring like it was going out of style. You could get a regional job with a wet commercial. Things were moving and they were moving fast. Then age 65 came down. I knew then that the boom wouldn't last much longer and it didn't. A year or two after that announcement everything came to a screeching halt. Add on top of that the current economic situation and boom, stalemate.

I knew that I would be stuck here for a bit longer than I thought. I knew that my "future" plans would be on hold for 3-5 years. But the numbers don't lie. For the last few years the only people leaving the airlines were those that were fired, lost medicals, new jobs, or just gave up on the industry. There aren't enough of those people leaving to really justify a lot of hiring. However when REAL attrition starts the airlines will have 3 choices. Keep the same size fleet and hire to cover attrition. Grow and cover attrition. Or get rid of planes and shrink as pilots start to leave. I don't think Southwest will say, "Well we had 100 guys retire in the last quarter so we have decided to park 10 of our 73's so we can be properly staffed."

 

Not sure, but I THINK it would depend on what the MECs decide. It helps that they're both ALPA, but I'd wager XJ's contract is gonna be amendable before the merger is done anyway.

 

True but I can easily explain voluntarily downgrading to not commute to some of the industrys worst reserve work rules. I can't move and can't afford 2 houses (no there is no chance of renting mine out, there are already several vacant on my street) Those of us with families have very tough choices ahead depending on how things shake out. Some of us may have no feasable choice to ride this out. We are all waiting for the powers to be to tell us what thier planning to do with us.

 

That I understand completely. My bid preferences are mem ca and then mem fo. I'm not going to commute for reserve as long as there is a base here. Now if the base closes I will have no other choice but to pack up and move, again. We will all have some choices to make soon. Good luck to us all.

 

Fleet Manager for XJ said Mesaba will be flying 3 crj-200 airframes from PCL as of August 1, and they will be returned in 6 weeks. I don't like how this is turning out already.

 

Might give us a break in the staffing department. With an FO class supposedly starting July 26th, even if they're current and qualified on the CRJ, they won't be done by Aug 1st. Probably need bodies to operate the a/c. We certainly don't have them on the 9E side of the house....