block30

I follow your posts, and this one is spot on as usual. +1 !!

Airborne1

Mesa Management is currently negotiating a 5% pay cut for its pilots. I think I would rather see an airline close its doors before pay and QOL gets any worse; at least at the regional level.

jayray2

I don't see it happening either. United and American pilots were trying to save their pensions and save a job they hoped they would have for life. We don't have pensions and most of us have no intention of working at 9E for life. There is no reason for most of us to even consider a concession.

sinsilvia666

spot on ! i agree 100%

PurdueFlyer

Just say no. Does anyone at Mesa really think a 5% pay cut will save te company?

Liv2soar

This whole situation just seems fake to me. I've been following the stock, reading the business related articles, and reading this thread for quite some time now.

For an airline the size of Pinnacle to loose a few million dollars during a transition period is more or less a "Break-Even." When FedEx bought Kinko's, which costs millions and millions of dollars, that transition period showed FedEx to have a loss. Nobody panicked as it was clearly explained by Fred Smith. Excluding the one time fees of this transaction, FedEx was profitable. No big deal.

Same with Pinnacle, excluding the one time fees of streamling 3 airlines into one, and a move to downtown Memphis...the airline isn't in financial trouble. When it's all said and done, Pinnacle will be back to normal, and with greater synergies than before.

What is troubling to me, is the CEO is literally scaring the $hit out of everyone. What CEO does this? One that purposely wants to send the stock price in the toilet? (He did a good job with that!) One that wants to deliberately send the business in bankruptcy perhaps? Hmmmm.

For the past few years we've seen high oil price bring up the CASM exponentially for the 50 seat market. Some routes are profitable, while the majority are not. It's no secret at all that the Legacy carriers as a whole, want to shrink down the utilization of their 50 seat jets.

If I was a pilot at Pinnacle right now, I would be holding the CEO accountable for why on earth he hasn't exercised the option, yet, to have the pilot cost income from Delta be set to the actual cost (as clearly outlined in the ASA). If this option isn't exercised, then of course the airline will be less profitable, or in this case, a loss.

Sean Menke knows deep down inside that the pilot group will NOT take a paycut, not 1 red penny.....especially after negotiating for 5 loooong years. If the flight attendants give up 10 %, what is that? A buck and a half per hour? The rest of the employees dont' make up any cost savings as most are barely above minimum wage. The leadership restructing leaves the airline with paying out massive golden parachute packages in the millions.


This whole thing is a fraud, I smell a rat. There's more to this story, my guess is Delta is directing this to save face, by creatively, yet legally, shrink down the utilization of the 50 seaters, simply because they aren't profitable.


Meanwhile........Phil Trenary and Doug Shockey are living it up at a 5 star resort in the tropics, blowing their millions........

BoilerUP

Yup...10-Qs show they were operationally profitable each of the last three quarters; operating expenses (which include employee wages) were lower than operating revenues. However, non-operational interest expense threw them to a loss each quarter.

I think this has much less to do with employees than it does vendors, lenders and lease holders...float a non-too-subtle threat of bankruptcy as leverage to renegotiate more favorable terms.

Liv2soar

The big question is, are the employees going to realize that, in all reality, Pinnacle isn't in any financial danger?

So they bump along breaking even for a while, big deal.....

MunkyButtr

The entire pilot group needs to read your first post. Most importantly I hope the MEC sees the same thing you do. The only reason I can think of pushing us into bankruptcy is the fact that Delta wants to be rid of 50 seaters. If Pinnacle delcares than its an open avenue for parking more 50's. I really wouldn't put it passed Delta to have a larger hand in this whole deal. Companies never make money in a transition.

The more and more I think about the packages those SVP's are getting when they get the boot makes me sick to my stomach, but then again its the world we've always lived in. We pilots are on the wrong side of the house.

jayray2

I've wondered also if Delta is behind this mess, but Pinnacle is their own entity with their own stock holders. If Pinnacles starts to lose 200s this place is over, it will sink as the pilot cost rise above those of Comair. Bigger is better and more profitable in this market, Pinnacle is not going to shrink to profitability. I just don't see how Delta can be pulling the strings on this, as much as they would like to get rid of the 200s they still need them for the time being. Even if they could get rid of all of them tomorrow they couldn't physically do it, all their international customers need a way to get to their hubs.