Full pay until the last day. Call Their Bluff. Lots of other pilot groups have taken cuts, only to take more in BK. F-that. It's our combined company and our combined future. No cuts, period. None.

No Concessions. None

 

Jan 1, 2012. Either the wage concessions are in, or 9E will declare BK. It's sickeningly simple.

 

No. BK will happen whether we take concessions or not. How much do you want to lose. BK rates on current pay, or BK rates on concessions?

Didn't they just sign a contract with the FA's and give them a large bonus? Now they want concessions....

 

Flaps,

You know shy never lets little facts like balance sheets, cash flows, and liquidity get in the way of a good fear mongering statement....geez.....

 

They're gonna declare bankruptcy on a Sunday?

Wage concessions of a measly 5% is what makes or breaks PNCL's solvency?

 

Well maybe not. The current "management" team is going to be looking out for THEIR best interests first and foremost...they may not particularly care if federal marshals seize PT's loot in the process.

 

Pinnacle doesn't need to declare bankruptcy. They are going through a bunch of ONE time costs associated with this mega merger. Notably training AND millions in bonuses paid to departing executives.

Is your airline operationally profitable? Yes I believe it is. What has happened is Pinnacle isn't making as much profits as it has in the past and that will upset Wall Street since they always want increasing profits. The only way increasing profits will happen for a regional now is through cutting costs and the only real easily controllable cost is labor. They can try and renegotiate some leases but labor is and always has been the easiest target.

Don't give in to them because in two maybe three quarters time Pinnacle will be net profitable again regardless of your concessions. You just spent 10 years fighting for this contract, don't roll over now.

Every merger goes through these one time costs of integration. Delta/Northwest did and United/Continental is right now. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on these one time costs the difference for a company like United is that they are also generating more revenue which they can point out to Wall Street and say, "Yes our costs are high right now due to the merger expenses but our revenues have also grown."

Pinnacle doesn't have that luxury since it's revenues come from FFD contracts. There is no growth opportunity outside of securing more flying.

Sean Menke is trying to protect his job right now but in reality your company will be fine with in a year after the merger sorts itself out. Let Menke sweat it out with Wall Street, don't take money out of your pockets to make his job easier. Make him earn the ridiculous bonus he will likely reward himself when this is all done with.

 

Your tone will change once Delta reneges on our training reimbursement.

 

Is the training reimbursement language in the sale/purchase agreement of XJ last year?

 

Yes, but built mostly on hopes of dreams of 18-20 million in reimbursement.

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Outlook

New Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association
We entered into a joint collective bargaining agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association (“ALPA”) during February 2011 covering the pilots at
all three of our operating subsidiaries. The new agreement contains substantial salary and benefits increases for our pilots, bringing their total compensation in line with the average for airlines with similarly sized aircraft. As a result, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, the new agreement increased our salaries, wages and benefits costs by approximately $4.9 million and $13.7 million, respectively, and we expect our total pilot costs to increase by approximately $19 million for the full year 2011.

In connection with our acquisition of Mesaba, we modified our existing capacity purchase agreements with Delta to provide for a rate adjustment
that is designed to increase our rates under all of our capacity purchase agreements with Delta commensurate with the increase in pilot labor costs related to our Delta operations.

The rate adjustment will be calculated and agreed to by us and Delta 12 months after Pinnacle’s and Mesaba’s pilots are covered under a joint collective bargaining agreement, which occurred in February 2011.

As part of the rate adjustment, we will receive a one-time retroactive payment related to the prior 12 months for the increase in our pilot costs, inclusive of training and displacement related to the merging of Pinnacle’s and Mesaba’s jet operations.

In addition, we will receive a prospective adjustment payable for future periods such that our rates pertaining to pilot costs will be approximately equivalent to our actual pilot costs at the time of the rate adjustment.

While we will not receive any cash payments related to these adjustments from Delta until 2012, we currently estimate that the one-time retroactive adjustment related to the 12 months ending March 2012 could be as much as $18 million to $20 million, and the prospective rate increase that would begin in March 2012 could be as much as $14 million to $17 million annually.

No assurances can be made that the amount of the rate adjustments ultimately agreed to with Delta will equal our current estimates. We have not recorded any revenue associated with these rate adjustments in 2011, and we do not expect to recognize any of this revenue until 2012 upon the final determination of the amount with Delta.



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In other words, hopes and dreams. It's like how I estimated every pilot would receive a pony as part of the new JCBA, but "no assurances can be made that the amount of ponies, if any, will equal our current estimates."