Ouch, never thought of that. It's genius! Man them Delta boys are ice cold, no mistakes.

I hope we shut down in a year, Delta backing out of the bridge agreement would be very beneficial to 9E pilots.

PNCL's new CEO
 

Is there a source to this story?

I hope they shut it down too. It would also be beneficial to Delta pilots.
My guess is, RA has already run the numbers for every conceivable scenario, and knows the exact day it will be shut down.

I'll bite. How?

My understanding is PCL ALPA has a contract with Delta to have at least 81 CRJ-900's for 7 years. Some may argue that Delta owes 7 years of wages to the pilots that would staff those aircraft if Delta winds PCL down. If they wind PCL down in a year some pilots would get 6 years of pay. This contract is between ALPA and Delta not PCL corp. This would be my understanding on why people think they would owe years of wages to some pilots.

The SSP agreement promises the aircraft, but it would be a stretch to say they owe them 7 years of pay. This is from the SSP. All Delta has to do is find a reason to terminate the DCA. And if the terminate the DCA the SSP is terminated as well.

The commitments in Section 1.a.-b. will terminate and shall be of no further force or effect upon the earlier of: i. the termination of the Delta Connection Agreement between Delta and Pinnacle (“DeltaPinnacle DCA”), as may be amended from time to time, that governs the operation of the aircraft subject to Section 1.a.-b., in accordance with its terms so long as Pinnacle, or its successor, is not an affiliate (as defined in the Delta PWA) of Delta Air Lines, Inc

That sounds like something USAPA would come up with.... and lose on yet again in court.

What reason would that be? Since Pinnacle is about to become a subsidy of Delta, the only way to terminate the Bridge agreement would be a Delta bankruptcy, or a coordinated job action on the part of Pinnacle pilots. That provision you reference above is in there so Pinnacle pilots don't strike and hold Delta hostage with that 81 aircraft scope. It covers no other reason of termination, i.e. performance numbers, cash on hand, etc.

edit: there is one other scenario that voids the bridge agreement, and that is complete scope recapture of all 76 seat RJs to mainline.

Just because a CEO has shut down two companies, it doesnt mean that he has come here to do the same. Delta has a very cheap operator in pinnacle now and they have them for the next 7 years at least. Im not saying it wont happen but I think that Delta has different plans for pinnacle. Having said that, you should still be looking elsewhere because delta's plans change by the second.