FYI, Delta told Comair we had too many 50 seaters. They told us we were going to park 50s until our fleet was down to 44 aircraft - mostly 700/900s.

18 months later, just as we passed the 50 airplane mark on our way to 44, Delta announced that we would not be efficient with just 44 aircraft, and that they were shutting us down.

On the other hand, Compass had a fleet of 36 aircraft for years. Of course they don't have 15-year Captains either.

 

Does the UAL TA reduce the overall regional aircraft?

 

I can see it now... and RyanAir would have advertisements on em...

 

They basically cut and pasted Delta's scope and a year behind but a cut and paste of the pay rates too.

 

Apparently, getting a contract that put us in line with other DCI carriers like Skywest and ASA (or, well, I guess they're the same but with different contracts now?!?) broke the bank and sent us into bankruptcy. At that point, I'd say it's all mis-management. If you can't operate your business with the same costs as your competitor, you need to look in the mirror.....

 

It is because of all the training costs. Management screwed up allowing us to bid what ever aircraft we could hold as soon as the SLI was complete. This sent i think around 1/3 of the pilots into long term training. Then add in that we lost all of the US airway Saabs that created downgrades and displacements. This burned through the cash 9e had and created a cash flow problem. Then we lost all of colgans flying plus now the de-fence training for XJ pilots sending another large group of pilots to training. The training department is at max capacity so there are tons of pilots sitting at home doing nothing. If we can make it out of this 9e will be making a profit. The only question is does Delta want us. I hope that Spanjers is planning on looking for flying for other Majors so Delta does not have so much control over us.

 

Delta management plunked down that bankruptcy financing, and therefore may be able to prevent its competitors from accessing Pinnacle's lift.

 

They went further than that and nuked almost all possibilities of Pinnacle flying for other companies.... complete with ensuring they pull down all the Colgan flying.

Opening up cross training to Colgan's fleet in the standard Pinnacle manner of executing it the worst possible way is what put 9E in bankruptcy. I don't see any flying for other airlines in 9E's future for a very long time.

 

It wasn't management. It was your own JCBA. I was very vocal about this very topic, mainly because the loss of the XJ Saab fleet meant 9E vacancies would be filled with them, and cause some displacements of 9E pilots. I took my concern to several union reps, and all said the same thing, that with this JCBA, we force the company to have a company-wide bid, and bid whatever you want! It made zero sense. You had pilots from all 3 certificates that wanted to jump across all 3 airlines, and management was forced to allow it. What should have happened is that movement across all 3 airlines should have been on hold, and allowed only movement within each own airline, until a joined fenced operation was fully functioning. The way it happened, 9E Corp was allowing all 3 pilot groups to jump across all 3 airlines as soon as the JCBA came out, and well before any fenced operations even started. Ultimately, the Mesaba group ran the new union. They made a serious push to make sure CS would lose and TW would become the new MEC Chairman. And since Mesaba was already wearing the pants in the whole situation, they couldn't afford to have no movement across the other two airlines when their Saabs were parked. They used the provisions they put in the JCBA to force the company to allow their pilots to bid across ASAP.

So in that regards, it wasn't management that allowed that to happen, it was the union and the JCBA.


Didn't lose it. Menke mentioned it was a voluntary draw down to staff the other bases and other fleets. This cash was something Delta did not want to pay in training costs. And why should they pay for US Air Express pilots' training? They reneged on those costs, and it created a cash flow problem.

 

I believe that the US flying was going away once the slot swap was done they just made it happen faster. I do agree that the Union should have helped out at the beginning with training events how ever it was the responsibility of management at the time the JCBA was signed to do their due diligence.

What i meant for looking for other flying was if we get out of BK. Once/IF we emerge I believe we are able to fly for anybody unless Delta Buys us.