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Originally Posted by JBUCREW  did you hear that Delta is pulling 4000 hours of flying from the connection carriers... Sounds like Comair/Mesa are going to get the screws. I wonder what that will do to our Delta flying, more/stay the same. Heard a rumor that we may be putting some of our 900's into JFK for Delta.
On the flipside Compass is coming into DTW in JAN... We just keep losing flying in DTW/MSP to Compass and Mesaba. I also heard a United contract for 900's and Q400's is underway right now... now these are all just hearsay but it could mean that NWA flying is going and the future could be Delta/United. Just some thoughts. |
I got no doubts that NWA flying is just gonna continue to shrink. Makes since considering they own both Mesaba and Compass. Also fits with their "pump 'em and sell 'em" philosophy with wholly owned regionals. Beat down Mesaba, give them -900s and lots of flying, then spin them off in an IPO. Sound familiar? They did the same thing to Express Airlines I when they sold them in an IPO as Pinnacle Airlines. I'm betting Compass won't be around long enough for the flowthrough agreement to even kick in. They'll sell it in month 29, and the guys that went there for the flow through will get the shaft. I hope I'm wrong, though.
The reason we're losing routes (that aren't really "ours" anyway) to Mesaba and Compass is b/c 50 seaters are always oversold on those routes. Phil and Co will probably use that little tidbit to try to convince people once again that the pilots sunk the airline when we didn't agree to a subpar contract back in March. Although, I HIGHLY doubt we would have gotten -900s even if we had signed that crappy contract. They were going to Mesaba the whole time, IMO.
I don't think we're gonna lose any Delta flying, but we might not get any more from Delta. That's fine with me since it looks like Delta is axing some regional routes in favor of more MD-88s/90s. Upward mobility for me. Which means management might actually have to do some work for a change. There's no way they can justify the cost of the 900 program with only 16 airplanes flying. They either need more Delta flying or.....
United I could see happening. They're in trouble financially, and either need to outsource more or merge. No secret Tilton's shopping for a merger partner, and Mesa keeps dropping the ball on the regional flying. My guess is we're actually in a good position to snag some of that flying, especially since we've already got the cash and the program in place for the airplanes United wanted Mesas to run when Mesa was having trouble getting them up and going. Although, I'd bet Colgan's a closer to done deal with Q400s than we might be with the -900s. They already fly under the United banner, and giving us more planes when management is crying that we won't be able to grow without a crap contract kinda goes against everything they want. I was surprised they announced the Delta flying, but then again they held on to that as long as they possibly could. It was literally "We can't get anymore flying unless you sign our last, best and final offer." Two weeks later they announced the Delta flying. So much for that last, best and final offer....