Whiskey's on the bottle.
Well said Hud. You been stuck in MIA yet?
Whiskey, you seem a very vocal (yet mostly ignorant) poster on this board. DO you base any of your decisions on thought, or do you just stick with emotion and rhetoric. Let me fill you in on J4J with some FACTS, so that your future posts will be brimming with practical and pertinant information. That is your aspiration, is it not?
ANY new jet added to US AIR is now under the J4J. That's because we were already flying the maximum allowed under the US Pilots contract. To add more, the US Pilots thought they should get a pice of the action. For every new airplane, half the crews will be current Mesa pilots and half will be furloughed US pilots. Of their half, half again will be CA and half will be FO. The CA's will be 1st year CA pay, and the FO's will get max (year 7 I believe) FO pay. Their "super seniority" goes as far as being able to hold jet slots when otherwise their seniority would not allow it. For all other purposes, they are new hires. Example, a US CA will get to be CA as a new hire, and ....thats it. For bidding lines.....last. For bidding vacation.....last. For travel, junior assignments, and whatever else pertains to seniority.....last. Yes, you are right....some "new hire" Us Air guys will be CA's out of their relative seniority on the Mesa list. They will, however hold that position on a jet that they brought with them. Also, they are limited to the US Air Express operation; they will not fly in the America West/United/Frontier/Mesa systems.
Now lets look at numbers. Let's say 50 new jets, actually less than has already been agreed to, but I'd like to keep the numbers simple. At 5 crews/jet, thats 500 NEW pilots jobs created. Follow me? Now, 250 of those jobs go to US pilots, giving them 125 CA slots and 125 FO slots. The OTHER 125 CA slots and 125 FO slots go to existing, and FUTURE Mesa pilots.
Also, these furloughed pilots are Mesa employees, going through Mesa groundschool on Mesa simulators, bidding Mesa schedules, and, as will be the case, sitting RSV because thats what their seniority can hold. There is no seperate certificate, or special schedules or crewrooms or handshakes.
Now, to sum up. 50 new jets...none of which were here before J4J, equals 500 new jobs at Mesa. 250 of those jobs go to present and future Mesa employees. Of course, this is in addition to the new jobs created by the 15 CRJ-700 and 25 CRJ-900, oh and the 10 new Dash-8's going to DEN. Lets add it up. 50+25+15+10 equals 100. Thats 1000 new pilots job at Mesa in the coming months. To be fair, a few of these jets are already staffed by Freedom pilots, but the new contract has secured a special place for most of them.
On a seperate but serious note, I spoke with a couple of Air Wisconsin CA's last week in DEN. I can't remember their names so I'll call them Jack and Daniel. Jack&Daniel said that in the event of a Chapter 7 situation at UA, Air Wisconsin would suspend operations. Is this true? Are you persuing alternate codeshare partners in that event?
Lastly, I would like to extend an invitation for you to Jumpseat on Mesa at any time. Any and all Air Wisconsin pilots are always welcome on my airplane. I refuse to play games with a hard earned and desperatey needed seat that belongs to us all.
Good luck with upgrade.