Mesaba/Pinnacle/

[skirt]

I have a friend who is looking to fly for Pinnacle, and asked me about the Mesaba and Pinnacle situation. I don't have a clue on the enviroment.

Can somebody explain to me if NWA is whipshawing the two pilot groups?

What is the status of the Mesaba contract and potential strike?

If a strike happened could Mesaba separate from NWA (or visa versa) and form a new relationship with another major (ie. United and the ACA situation)?

How many CRJ's does NWA have on delivery between now and summer that are NOT yet allocated to Pinnacle?

What is the relationship (if any) between Pinnacle and Mesaba pilots?

I assume both are ALPA, if so how is that relationship managed by ALPA National?

How does Big Sky fit into all this?

What a mess.

Skirt

 

[8HourPilot]

Many of the answers to your questions are going to vary from now and inside of 2 months from now.

 

[JJJ]

http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2003/12/01/daily9.html

Both Mesaba and the pilots have asked to be released from federally-mediated negotiations, if three days of negotiations, ending Dec. 4, show no progress. Once the release is granted, a 30-day cooling-off period starts, after which the pilots could strike.


Right now all of the 129 firm orders are going to Pinnacle. These are all of the allocations through the end of 2005. NWA still has 175 options. There has been no announcement as to whether those options will be exercised or not, but I imagine they will. No one know where those airplanes will go Mesaba/Pinnacle/SkyWest/Big Sky/Mesa etc.

Someone at Mesaba might have some details about whipsawing. Pinnacle is not in contracts at the moment, so there is nothing to threaten us with... yet.

If the ASA at Mesaba is similar to the one at Pinnacle NWA would have the option of ending the agreement if there was a work stopage of, I think 7 days. I doubt that this would happen though, seeing that NWA couldn't afford to lose the feed that Mesaba provides.

NWA is suppose to announce around the 15th of this month if they are going to remove the rest of the Avro's. It is not known right now if those aircraft would be replaced with or NWA will try to bring another Airlink into the family.

I would say the relationship between Mesaba and Pinnacle pilots is mostly cordial. There are always a few bad eggs on both sides though. Pinnacle pilots support Mesaba pilots in their efforts for an industry leading contract because the better their contract now, the better our contract will be when we start talks.

Hope this helps some.