NO guarantees at Pinch A Nickel
I could give you a 2 to 2.5 year estimate but I'd be blowing smoke at you. Its not fair to you to do that.
Our projections are just about as bad as the projections of the Clinton administration's magical surplus and aircraft/upgrade promises evaporate EVEN QUICKER.
I have been a reserve captain in DTW for close to 3 years now, as a commuter mind you with 10, 9 or even 8 days home a month due to extensions and junior mannings. (Captains are so razor thin staffed to save on salaries that you get alot of extensions at this place.)
Pinch A Nickel is controlled by Northwest in Minnie and decisions are revised almost daily. We were told that the company would operate 85 CRJ's by end of '03 and we ended up with 76. Now, the latest "schmack pack" from our CEO is 114 birds by the end of '04. Well as of our latest bid pack, we are only going to be at 79 birds thru the END OF FEB. Extrapolating this anemic rate of aircraft delivery out to December results in a total of 94 airplanes by the end of 2004, NOT THE 114 PROMISED BY OUR CEO.
I am not waiting around for broken promise after broken promise to come to their fruition. My bid is in for FO taking effect on the June 1st vacancy. I'll go from number 97 on the captain list to number 7 on the FO list. Heeeeeeyahhhhh! (as Dean would say)
If you want to sit around as an FO for 4-5 years, then come to Pinnacle. Keep in mind that Mesaba will start getting CRJ's once they sign their contract. It would be silly for NWA to grow PCL and leave XJ static in light of the fact that our contract is due in May of 2005.
Sean P. (oh yeah...Shuttin IT down in '07 BABY!!)