Pinnacle Buying Colgan

[BirdCatcher]

And I can't disagree with that. But why wouldn't they purchase another airline for a quarter of the price (or even less) and get the same results?

Because what other airline could they buy at about that same price that would instantly create business relationships with 3 other airlines. They just went from NWA to CAL, UA, US overnight.

 

[340SAM]

I hope it works out for all but I am now thinking like some said above "THE COLGANS ARENT STUPID", so maybe with this kind of capital behind them you guys might be in a great position to rule the turbo prop world. Large and Small.

Sam

 

[ifly34]

Because what other airline could they buy at about that same price that would instantly create business relationships with 3 other airlines. They just went from NWA to CAL, UA, US overnight.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[suupah]

First of all, i am very open to all options since the purchase. I enjoy working at Colgan. Regarding our current work rules....here are some of the things that already occur here. Low pay for the 2nd year FO's. Pinnacle would not want to lower pay further do to the extreme attrition. If Republic is hiring 1000 pilots I highly doubt they would lower our pay. We are junior manned often. On reserve we have a max of 5 min to return a missed call. Many regionals have a 2 hour reserve, ours is one. We have no commuting policy. many bases have 14 hour duty days with only 5 hours of pay. Also no per diem (ours is 1.35, least in the industry). All this aside I understand that we have been in a different world than other regionals. Things could be a lot better but realistically it would not be wise for Pinnacle to make our work worse. We luckily are in a period were qualified pilots are becoming more difficult to find. Reading these pages of posts tells me that PCL pilots have no idea what being a Colgan pilot is like, and Colgan pilots have no idea what it is like at a public company with contract issues. All options need to be explored. Not rushed and not procrastinated.

They will not lower pay with republic and skywest hiring so fervently. that would be just about suicidal for them.

Our work rules were pretty much bottom of the barrel but to tell you the truth, you don't screwed around with much here. but with out station basing it isn't very easy to exten or junior man someone. When outstation basing is changed it can and probably will be j. man/extension HELL!

 

[Rook]

I have no desire to move to Detroit and fly a jet. quote]

You could always commute. No wait a second, no you can't.

 

[ChoadSnazz]

Vector,

I think a secondary reason might be the Saab certificate. It will be very easy to relieve Mesaba of some of their routes when Pinnacle Corp. has a Saab certificate.

Uh, let me see ... NWA has agreed to purchase Mesaba. "Very easy to relieve ..?" - please explain.

 

[redflyer65]

Here the deal. It's just speculation, but Mesaba just signed a new contract in bankruptcy that has nice snap back provisions if they receive a certain number of planes. They are poised to get a batch of ERJ's and/or CRJ's. Move the Saab flying over to Colgan slow so that the snap back provisions never get paid out, and the Saab feed stays under a Airlink partner.

Like I said, it's just speculation but a possible scenerio none the less.

This purchase of a NON-union carrier by this management group is a huge red flag.

 

[beechcowboy]

Whassa matter? AWAC didn't work out either? You were a crying biatch when you were here, not much has changed. A commercial ticket and 3 airline ground schools and you still don't know the purpose of the MEL. Feel free not to check back. But if you do, can you post the exact reference in your contract where ALPA limits the number of MELs on the aircraft?

I know who you speak of, but I never went to AWAC. I never interviewed at AWAC. It was never in my plans. You obviously have the wrong person in mind. The fact that you can respond to well intentioned post with this kind of garbage show just how concerned we should all be about our futures. I still have buddies at Colgan; and though I am very glad to be gone, it is still a part of my career history and I hate to see a group of good pilots placed in a bad positions. Because Colgan's labor is cheaper than others, and because Colgan is non-union, I would suspect there is a play to me made by PCL management. I would just hate to see more discontent created by union versus non-union. By having all our pilot groups in ALPA, we can weaken a valuable management tool, using non-union labor to undercut the union labor. Give it some thought, it is good for everyone to consolidate our voice.

 

[beechcowboy]

Beechcowboy you are a sellout. Why would you leave that close to upgrade? You are obviously a moron. PIC time is what is important. I think the problem is there is nobody in this company who has the balls to stand up and talk union stuff. It would be very interesting to see union talk start around here. I just don't see it happening without some serious outside intervention. We all need to be informed big time as well and not just through flight info. If a vote would happen today I bet the union would be turned down. I don't know if ALPA plans on approaching us somehow and at the same time majorly informing us but that is the way to go. Posting stuff on flight info and threatening us that we will be the next GO jets isn't going to work with this pilot group. We didnt ask for this crap. Most of us think who the hell cares change won't happen that quick and by the time it does we will have moved on. So if there is anyone out there who is really serious about this you better start moving now and find a way to educuate us all quickly.

Let me take these one by one. I left b/c Colgan was hosing me, in addition to other personal issues. Colgan chose to continue to change the requirements for upgrade on a monthly basis. Upgrade became a moving target at the will of management. Eventually they skipped my # and went to a less senior pilot for upgrade, admitted they shouldn't have done it, and refused to correct their error. The next month several more senior FOs, who had completed pay for training programs, finally reached what management determined was an acceptable amount of total time 1700 hrs, versus the 2100 hours they were holding me and others to. They were scheduled for upgrade over the next two months. The quality of life was poor, about to get worse, and I decided to say no.

As for threats, there are not threats. The facts are simple, Colgan remains a non-union carrier. We all know from experience that non-union carriers are a favorite management tool used to whipsaw one pilot group against another. Nobody can truly prosper from such games. Join 1000s of other ALPA pilots in an attempt to create one voice for our futures. There are many issues that need to be addressed other than whipsaw games and consolidations. United we are in a better position to address all of these challenges. It may not happen today, tomorrow, or next month; but I am sure PCL managment will utilize Colgan in some way, shape, or form to influence negotiations on Pinnacle's contract. Its BS, and it can happen to you. Are you your brother's keeper, or not? Get in the game and be a player. Don't assume that just because your goal is to use Colgan as a stepping stone, that others might not want to remain there. Don't assume that your desire for quick movement should exonerate you from being an active participant in improving your profession. You may leave Colgan behind next month, but what of your buddies who are left behind, who choose to stay, or who are not ready to go yet? Are you doing everything you can to be a good ambassador to our profession.

I'm no sellout. I enjoy my job, I enjoy the company, and I am engaged in the game, for better or worse. I'm not standing on the sidelines, are you?

 

[GEORGE DUBYA]

Let me take these one by one. I left b/c Colgan was hosing me, in addition to other personal issues. Colgan chose to continue to change the requirements for upgrade on a monthly basis. Upgrade became a moving target at the will of management. Eventually they skipped my # and went to a less senior pilot for upgrade, admitted they shouldn't have done it, and refused to correct their error. The next month several more senior FOs, who had completed pay for training programs, finally reached what management determined was an acceptable amount of total time 1700 hrs, versus the 2100 hours they were holding me and others to. They were scheduled for upgrade over the next two months. The quality of life was poor, about to get worse, and I decided to say no.

As for threats, there are not threats. The facts are simple, Colgan remains a non-union carrier. We all know from experience that non-union carriers are a favorite management tool used to whipsaw one pilot group against another. Nobody can truly prosper from such games. Join 1000s of other ALPA pilots in an attempt to create one voice for our futures. There are many issues that need to be addressed other than whipsaw games and consolidations. United we are in a better position to address all of these challenges. It may not happen today, tomorrow, or next month; but I am sure PCL managment will utilize Colgan in some way, shape, or form to influence negotiations on Pinnacle's contract. Its BS, and it can happen to you. Are you your brother's keeper, or not? Get in the game and be a player. Don't assume that just because your goal is to use Colgan as a stepping stone, that others might not want to remain there. Don't assume that your desire for quick movement should exonerate you from being an active participant in improving your profession. You may leave Colgan behind next month, but what of your buddies who are left behind, who choose to stay, or who are not ready to go yet? Are you doing everything you can to be a good ambassador to our profession.

I'm no sellout. I enjoy my job, I enjoy the company, and I am engaged in the game, for better or worse. I'm not standing on the sidelines, are you?

Yes I am standing on the sidelines as many of my fellow soilders are at Colgan. We don't know what the hell is going on. We are quite sick of Pinnacle pilots infiltrating our posts. We were very happy in our misery before you union talking annoying people came along. It's very simple if they intend to keep us seperate we don't give a crap about pinnacles pilot group and union. If they intend to use us in some way to screw the pinnacle pilots then yeah we will listen about this foreign to us union stuff. Until we see something change in our everyday lives however we don't care.