Thanks guys! Mesaba does sound like things are turning around. I used to keep an eye on them when I lived in ND and MN so this is all good news. I appreciate the advice and I'll keep all of that in mind.

Thanks guys! Mesaba does sound like things are turning around. I used to keep an eye on them when I lived in ND and MN so this is all good news. I appreciate the advice and I'll keep all of that in mind.

Seriously and not trying to be a prick, but anyone looking at mesaba that didnt want to be a mesaba a year ago should go to XJT or somewhere. Think of mesaba as a blue collar pilot job where pay is fair, not great. It is also a place where experience speaks more than "shiny jet syndrome". Mesaba is no XJT, Horizon, SKYW, and definetly not PNCL, it's Mesaba. Part of the Redtail empire, and dont come jumping at it now when you talking trash about it six months ago. Bankruptcy and no one wanted to be there, new shiny jets and "yeah it sounds like a great opportunity", no it is not a FLOW THROUGH to NWA and probably never will be. I personally hope they slap a training contract on new hires to keep them from time buliding like a bunch of old colgan guys did just to get somewhere else... that kills an airline alot more than you think.

We do have a new hire training contract. It is a two part deal. 1-year $21,000 pro-rated after completion of IOE for new hires. It also has a "Long-Term Training" clause that says if you upgrade and leave prior to completing 3 years with the company, you will owe a 12 month pro-rated amount of the upgrade cost which is $6,000.

i hate to burst you bubble there mate but you guys are the exact same as pinnacle. you obviously haven't been in the industry long enough to know, so i will fill you in. a few years ago nwa had 2 regionals. nwa and express 1(i will refer to them as pinnacle from here on out). these two carriers were the only regionals that flew for nwa. One day nwa wanted to add more saabs to the fleet, and as you know mesaba got the deal. Nwa kicked pncl out of msp, knocked all there flying down, and pncl thought they were going to have to furlough a lot of pilots because of the reduction of flying. then came the avros, and as we know mesaba got them, and pncl kept getting knocked down. we were knocked down so far that the company became dirt cheap. NWA gladly bought pncl since they only flew for them, and they had knocked them down to nothing. Once they bought pinnacle they started throwing all the NEW shiny crj's our way. before you knew it we were a 100 plus rj only operator, while mesaba was missing out on all the new action. then once pncl was looking great and doing very good nwa put out an ipo, sold it off and reaped the benifits. then a year or so later it was mesabas turn. mesaba took the beating this time, they got planes taken away, reduction in staff, furloughed pilots,,, and just when you thought that mesaba was going to be no more.. nwa buys them... sound familiar?? now that nwa owns mesaba they are going to build them up the same way they did pinnacle. Give them all the new jets, all the new flying. get busniness really good..and then guess what... sell them off, reap the benefits, and then do it all over again. so you see your company is the exact same as pncl. you are no different. I know you like to think you are the blue collar guys who git er done,, but its the same over here. except with us, we are not taking a concessionary contract. the company has tried on several attempts to trick us into taking cuts to get the nwa flying. we of course said hell no and that we dont give a crap about any new flying. we don't care about the flying in slc for delta that has been floating around. we wont give in. all we care about is our qol, which is going to change whether the company likes it or not. so saying that you guys are some superior red tail airline made me chuckle a little bit. you guys took the concessions they wanted, you guys got bought, you guys get the flying. its an old cycle that has happened obviously more than you are aware of. just a little research and you could educate yourself on the facts. so please remember. you guys will get built up, you guys will get the new flying, you guys will get sold, and then you will get beat down and the cycle will start again. so yeah, get off your soap box, you really don't have one to stand on.

Phew! You had a lot to get off your chest.

Can you point me to where someone claimed Mesaba to be "some superior red tail airline." I would like to read that.

no i dont have a lot to get off my chest. i was quoting sigep_nm(see the post above mine and yours.) no just wanted to let him know that just because someone wants to go to mesaba now that they have good potential doesn't mean that they cant. sigep_nm is saying that if you didn't want to go to mesaba before, you shouldn't go now. thats ridiculous. i am glad mesaba is doing good. they deserve the break just like we did a couple of years ago. my post is in no way an attack on my brothers at mesaba. just sigep_nm attitude towrds people who want to go there now is a little messed up.

Wow...I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to start a war. In my own defense, when I referred to me watching Mesaba back in my ND and MN days, I didn't mean that I wouldn't have gone to Mesaba then as opposed to now (with the shiny new airplanes). The truth is that up until recently, I really haven't considered ANY airlines. I am a corporate pilot who is looking at his career options. I have a great job that pays well (with about as much security as anyone could expect these days) but I am reaching an age where I need to decide what I am going to do with my career. I started out flying wanting to go to the airlines but it just never worked out that way (so far). I am VERY aware of the pay issue but my wife works and can support us until I upgrade, etc.

Basically, I wanted some friendly advise from the "other" side of the fence. I have gotten plenty of that but at the same time, I've also tapped into some bitterness...sorry!

I'm confused. I think there is a non-Mesaba pilot posting a critique on a non-Mesaba pilot's post about Mesaba. Is this one of those situations where my enemies enemy is my friend ? Trouble is I can't figure out who is who.

Good arguments guys. Makes people think before they make a decision - a rare comodity in todays world.

So my next question (and I think a couple people have tried to address this) is; how will getting these new RJs be affected by people who are currently flying the SAABs? In other words, wouldn't they all want to move over to the RJ, placing new hires in the SAABs instead? I'm sure there's more to this as far as contract stuff, pros and cons, etc. than my corporate aviation pea brain can understand but I'd sure like to hear what people think about this...especially Mesaba pilots.

Also, does anyone have any idea of what reserve times will be like for new hires (especially if they go on the RJ)? I would think that they need to fill seats right now but again, reserve is a foreign word to a corporate slug like me.

Thanks again....

So here is the deal...I am going to go into detail here so that it is as clear as I can make it.

New hires at Mesaba are subject to a 3 year EQUIPMENT lock. Whatever equipment you are hired on to fly, you will be "Stuck" with for three years or until upgrade, whichever comes first. As a new hire, there is no Seat (status - i.e. F/O or Capt) lock per say. To upgrade, you must have 1000 hours in Mesaba aircraft or 2 years of Mesaba longevity. (If we are in a pinch for captains, there is an allowance to double your Mesaba block time to get you to the 1000 hour limit, so 500 hours at Mesaba will get you an upgrade in desperate times.)

Now, for lateral moves, Saab F/O to CRJ F/O for example. If you voluntarily lateral to another aircraft for whatever reason you will then be SEAT (status) locked for 24 months. This seat lock does not apply for involuntary displacements.

Example: An Avro F/O was involuntarily downgraded to Saab F/O due to the Avro's going away. He or she would not be seat locked on the Saab and could upgrade at anytime. However, if that person chooses to voluntarily move to the CR9, they WILL be SEAT-LOCKED in the right seat for 24 months.

Because we are in growth mode with high attrition, upgrades will be coming quickly for those on the list now and the first few classes of new hires. Few people will want to seat-lock themselves and have to wait 24 months to upgrade.

On the vacancy that just came out for the first 10 CR9 F/O's we had 6 lateral from the Saab and 4 recalled from Furlough. You can see just from that, that not all available jet slots were filled by saab F/O's because of the seat lock scenario.

The majority of the furloughs will be recalled to the Saab due to the fact that Mesaba needs to build the Saab numbers early to cover the training events that will take the current captains to the jet and upgrade the current F/O's to Saab captain.

Reserve will be short 1-4 months probably for the first few classes. As we get later into the year and 2008, reserve time will grow as less new hires will be coming in behind you.

I guess the point is, if Mesaba is where you want to be, make the move NOW to interview. Being at the forefront of the hiring will be a good thing for seniority, short reserve and short upgrade time.

Thanks....that was a great response. I believe you (RJ85FO) detailed that before but I think I have a good grasp on this now...much appreciated.

CR9 Delivery
 

Bombardier informed Mesaba of the following delivery schedule:

Airplane 1 will deliver on 5-25-07
Airplane 2 will deliver on 6-01-07
Airplane 3 will deliver on 6-28-07

Another question...when called for an interview with Mesaba, and if offered a job, when do they tell you what your aircraft assignment will be? Someone mentioned that you may not know until you report for class. This seems odd to me since that would/could/should be part of a candidates decision to accept a position anywhere. In other words, shouldn't you know what aircraft your interviewing for? or at least know once you been offfered a position? Any info would be appreciated.

Positions are awarded based on vacancy notices that are issued to all active pilots. Crew planning is simply feeding numbers to HR to tell them how many pilots they need on property each month. HR has no idea what aircraft you will be assigned, because the vacancy for the new hire class you will be in may not have come out by the time you are offered a job.

There are two line pilot positions at Mesaba. First Officer and Captain. We do not hire CR9 F/O's or SF3 F/O's. We hire F/O's. The pay and choice of bases are the same for each aircraft at the F/O level.

Traditionaly, you are notified in advance (maybe a week or two) of the aircraft you have been assinged and some training information is sent out prior to you coming to class. Sometimes, and this wave of hiring may be a good example, the material is not available in time, and you will find out your aircraft Day one of class when they pass out the "folders."