Compare and contrast the top tier regionals vs. Pinnacle and Mesa. For example, Mesa has about the same number of pilots as Comair (although rapidly decreasing). Food for thought.

PILOT COSTS
American Eagle spends more on pilots than other regional airlines. Below is a list of airlines and the 2006 pilot costs for each.
• American Eagle, $144 million .....3200 pilots
• ExpressJet, $134 million ......2800+ pilots
• SkyWest, $124 million .....2750 pilots
• Comair, $91 million ...1640 pilots
• Atlantic Southeast Airlines, $90 million ...1700 pilots
• Mesa Airlines, $65 million ......1740 pilots
• Pinnacle Airlines, $48 million .....1400 pilots
• Mesaba Airlines, $34 million ....714 pilots
Source: Transportation Department

Mesa ALPA should use this as fuel for their fire as negotiations start next month.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/...eagle0809.html

i am sure pinnacle will.

This is a misleading figure. I'm not saying that you are trying to be misleading, N2rotation, but the figures for AE are. The reason pilot costs are so much more is not because they pay the best (although they don't pay the worst), but because they have SO MANY senior pilots there. One should weight this fact when accepting a job there.

Many senior pilots not going anywhere = less opportunity for a new hire to advance.

....and they probably have the largest number of total pilots out of the regionals, but I have not looked at the exact numbers lately.

Here's a real comparison, cost PER PILOT:



As you can see, Comair is first, Pinnacle is last. Eagle is near the bottom.

I worked at Eagle. I'll confirm..... they didn't spend too much on me. They had a good deal on my services.

where did you get those figures, please post source. the reason i ask is you have mesaba listed 2 times.

I can't find it listed twice...maybe you misread? I dunno. Anyway, I took annual pilot costs divided by total pilots, from the original article, and then ranked them in order.

Not that you guys aren't aware, but I thought I would mention it anyway. Comair now has a new pilot contract, and would almost certainly not be anywhere near the top anymore. I'm not disputing that those 2006 stats are correct though.

Yeah, I was thinking about that, they are now, what, 15% lower? So that would put them more in the ballpark of the others.