With the recently announced RHS, and the continued cutting of back office management at both companies there is alot of speculation over here at comair that a merger is on the way.

Lets not debate whether it will happen or not, lets just assume it does.

How do you guys feel the list should be integrated?

Some facts to consider.

1. Very senior pilot group at comair. Most junior pilot on property has now been with the company for over 2 years. 300 on furlough

2. Senior pilots at mesaba who were there during bankruptcy and then a large portion of the list hired within the last 3 years.

3. Without counting comair's furloughs both pilot groups are almost exactly the same size.

4. Mesaba 35 900's, 17 200's, 49 sf340's

5. Comair 13 900's, 15 700's, 92 200's

6. No orders for airplanes for either company and all 900's have been accounted for under delta's new LOA with their pilots.

My personal thought is it would be almost straight ratio.

If you look at ALPA-ALPA mergers in the past they almost always come out straight ratios with some fences around certain a/c.

You could argue that comair doesnt have saabs so any pilot at comair should be able to hold a jet at the combined company. But I believe that would be offset by the fact that new hires at Mesaba can hold a jet and comair has a much larger exposure to 50 seaters. So throw those out the window and straight ratio is what I think would happen.

Im junior at comair so it really doesnt matter to me. Im sure I will end up junior at the combined company and Im not looking to take anyone seat at mesaba so straight ratio seems fair.

What are your thoughts??

I'm 6th year FO at Comair and 900 from the top. Maybe a 6th year Mesaba pilot can chime in with his seniority number, or a 900 number guy can chime in with his date of hire, and we'll go from there.

I believe on another thread on this site, someone mentioned that 80% of Mesaba's current pilot group was hired AFTER 80% of Comairs current group or something along those lines. I'll try to find the quote.

A straight ratio would not be fair to Comair guys, as much as Mesaba guys would be hurt with DOH.

Then again, it doesn't affect me... as a furloughed guy ALPA will just staple me to the bottom of whatever they decide is "best." I say whatever, so long as I can hold JFK and not commute to the cold great north, the rats nest that is DTW, or with the hayseeds at CVG.

That was me, saying that 80% of the Comair guys are senior to 60% of the Mesaba guys, and if you're not counting the Comair furlough guys then 100% of Comair pilots are senior to 60% of the Mesaba pilots.

By my math, the 1150 Comair pilots that aren't furloughed yet were all hired before we exited from BK in Spring 2007. The 300 on furlough were hired from Jan 2007 onward.

On the Mesaba side, they came out of BK in the spring of 2007 with 450ish pilots, then hired the other 700 or so in the last 18 months.

So you've got roughly 1150 Comair pilots senior to the last 700 pilots hired at Mesaba.

I have 4 junior to me in the company (XJ) as 900 captains. I'm at about 500 on the seniority list hired in May 2005. The most junior CRJ 200 captain is a Feb 05 hire. I was near the bottom (about 10-20 junior to me) from the bankruptcy furloughs. A 6 year person here(July 03 was the first hires after 9-11) would be about #430. The last list shows 1172 pilots though about 12 are phantom spots for potential flowdowns.

OK, that helps a lot. So number 900 at Comair is roughly same DOH as number 430 at Mesaba. Your equivilant number at Comair is a Sept 1999 hire.

Comair Seniority number and DOH:

100 = Nov 87
200 = Mar 90
300 = May 94
400 = Jun 98
500 = Sep 99
600 = Dec 00
700 = Sep 01 (Juniorest Captains)
800 = Oct 02
900 = Jul 03
1000 = May 05
1100 = Nov 06
1200 = Feb 07 (Furloughed)
1300 = Aug 07
1400 = Jun 08

What about Compass?

Lets just hope a merger doesnt happen. A lot of mesaba guys will unfairly be screwed over big time if it does. I hope Alpa does not allow that to happen.

Who scrooing whom depends on how they integrate the lists.

If they go straight ratio, the Comair guys get scrood. A 8th year Comair FO (number 600) will just love doing walkarounds for his 3rd year Mesaba Captain (also number 600). A 7th year Mesaba Captain bumps a 15-year Comair Captain back on reserve, that kind of thing.

If they do straight DOH, the Mesaba guys get scrood. A senior Mesaba FO hired in 2007 becomes very junior as 600 Comair FOs are added to the list above him. A 4th-year Mesaba Captain never gets off reserve because 500 of those 600 Comair FOs (who are senior to him) will upgrade and keep him where he is.

So some blend of the two methods would have to be found.

I'm sure ALPA will get right on that...

Maybe they get their old Comair seniority number back?