Pinnacle Purchases Colgan Air

Personally, if I worked at Colgan or Pinnacle, I'd be hitting up the ASA and Skywest guys for all the information about 'whipsawing' groups against one another.

It's going to probably happen fast 'n furious so the two pilot groups don't have enough time to work on a common strategy.
 
Well, the dust has settled a bit and we had a conference call outlining what is going on.

To make a long story short they do want to expand Colgan AND Pinnacle. Colgan is not going to take away Pinnacles flying and vice versa. Colgan will see growth in the Saabs AND larger 50-76 seat aircraft. They want to add more jets to the Pinnacle side.

Pinnacle = more jets
Colgan = more props

I think they feel there are enough pie pieces to go around and want to give it to everyone.

A few things . It looks like my days on the 1900 are going to be up sometime this year. When we get the bigger props, the 1900s WILL BE GONE! I then will most likely go to the larger aircraft (ATR, Q400), depending on my time possibly as a captain!

Also I had a question on the conference call about pay. I just got a phone call from Mr. Chuck Colgan Jr. making sure my question was answered. They have a lot going on and to take the time to answer my question stills shows me a lot about the company. The Colgans have been really good to me and I have faith in them.

I would still recommend everyone to put an application in and come fly the props!
 
Seggy said:
Well, the dust has settled a bit and we had a conference call outlining what is going on.

To make a long story short they do want to expand Colgan AND Pinnacle. Colgan is not going to take away Pinnacles flying and vice versa. Colgan will see growth in the Saabs AND larger 50-76 seat aircraft. They want to add more jets to the Pinnacle side.

Pinnacle = more jets
Colgan = more props

I think they feel there are enough pie pieces to go around and want to give it to everyone.

A few things . It looks like my days on the 1900 are going to be up sometime this year. When we get the bigger props, the 1900s WILL BE GONE! I then will most likely go to the larger aircraft (ATR, Q400), depending on my time possibly as a captain!

Also I had a question on the conference call about pay. I just got a phone call from Mr. Chuck Colgan Jr. making sure my question was answered. They have a lot going on and to take the time to answer my question stills shows me a lot about the company. The Colgans have been really good to me and I have faith in them.

I would still recommend everyone to put an application in and come fly the props!
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Any other expansions (other then in the media) that you can tell us?
 
There will be growth for both sides. Other than that...

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Well, somebody might want to tell the Mesaba guys/gals that have their hopes up with rumots going around there.
 
Seggy said:
Well, the dust has settled a bit and we had a conference call outlining what is going on.

To make a long story short they do want to expand Colgan AND Pinnacle. Colgan is not going to take away Pinnacles flying and vice versa. Colgan will see growth in the Saabs AND larger 50-76 seat aircraft. They want to add more jets to the Pinnacle side.

Pinnacle = more jets
Colgan = more props

I think they feel there are enough pie pieces to go around and want to give it to everyone.

A few things . It looks like my days on the 1900 are going to be up sometime this year. When we get the bigger props, the 1900s WILL BE GONE! I then will most likely go to the larger aircraft (ATR, Q400), depending on my time possibly as a captain!

Also I had a question on the conference call about pay. I just got a phone call from Mr. Chuck Colgan Jr. making sure my question was answered. They have a lot going on and to take the time to answer my question stills shows me a lot about the company. The Colgans have been really good to me and I have faith in them.

I would still recommend everyone to put an application in and come fly the props!
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Yeah, Seggy's da man chimin' in on the conf call asking if we can expect any adjustments in pay! :thumbsup:

I was dissappointed to hear the answer of, NO. Funny they think our pay is "in line with the industry." What industry, fast food service?
 
Heath said:
Yeah, Seggy's da man chimin' in on the conf call asking if we can expect any adjustments in pay! :thumbsup:

I was dissappointed to hear the answer of, NO. Funny they think our pay is "in line with the industry." What industry, fast food service?
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Bottom line is this:

On the Beech side we are actually above industry average when it comes to pay both on Captain and First Officer side. Our work rules in terms of pay credits, reserve time, and other extras that we have are fair to us as far as I am concerned. For January I will probably have a 70 hour block with 102 hour pay credit. But, it is either feast or famine.

On the Saab, well in the past most of the guys have upgraded in about 16 months. I think you will upgrade sooner rather than later Heath, my guess is within five months. We are going to be growing now that we have some capital.

Regardless the industry does stink when it comes to pay across the board. I am VERY interested to see what the larger aircraft payscale will be.

Bottom line is also this:

I had to take out $17,000 in loans the past year and a half to live. I have $7,000 left so I need to make more than I am now. I put in substitute teaching papers in today so I plan on doing that to make some more cash, but I need to make more at my real job.
 
How would the Q400 flying not take away from some of Pinnacle flying. Also with Horizon being the only one flying the 400 which you expect your rates to be similar.
 
Gonzo said:
How would the Q400 flying not take away from some of Pinnacle flying. Also with Horizon being the only one flying the 400 which you expect your rates to be similar.
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It would be with a Colgan codeshares or a new one.

They want to grow both sides, not shift flying.

Hope the rates are similar!
 
If the 1900s are going away who is going to be doing the EAS flying.

I hope you're right about growing both companies. Unfortunately I have no faith in Pinnacles management.
 
Seggy said:
There will be growth for both sides. Other than that...

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Ater 9/11 the EAS/Scheduled side of Scenic (i.e the 1900s) was the "future." We were in negotiations with the DOT for two EAS contracts that if we won we were going to get new 1900s, new routes, etc.

One month after getting the contracts (renewing them) we got a press release in our mail boxes saying the 1900s AND the contracts were *poof* gone.

Now the Otters are in BDC, with half of them gone and half of the OTTER routes gone, too.

So much for the "future."
 
Gonzo said:
If the 1900s are going away who is going to be doing the EAS flying.

I hope you're right about growing both companies. Unfortunately I have no faith in Pinnacles management.
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Oh it is going to be VERY interesting to see what happens. Either they will drop the EAS airports they can't get into with Saabs and give them to a new carrier, pressure the airports to put crash fire rescue to allow us to put the Saab there with 34 seats, or have a few thirty seat saabs running around that can get into these airports.

We only have six airports that we need the Beech for BKW, BLF, LEB, AUG, RKD, and BHB. All can support Saab service except for BKW and BLF. Trust me if we pull out of those cities, you won't see my crying. BLF is a mess we actually can only do visual approaches into there.

I have faith in the Colgans. They would not have sold if they thought it would be the demise of what they worked hard to build. I hope to build on that. I am not familiar with Pinnacle management and will give them the benefit of the doubt till they prove me wrong.

Without PCL, Colgan would not have capital to grow. Without Colgan, PCL would not have access to lucrative codeshares and a profitable route structure. Hopefully, the two sides will complement each other nicely and it works out for everyone.
 
pilot602 said:
First mistake ....
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You have been to two places already, no?

One thing I learned is things are not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

On the other side things aren't as good as people make it out to be.

It is some place in the middle.

Until they PERSONALLY prove me wrong, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. You have to have a glass is half full type of attitude in this industry or you will be miserable.
 
Well Seggy, I never though Colgan was bad enough to have to take out 17K in loans, but I guess things are worse than you say they are.

Do you have a flight school loan to take care of?

By the way, did you catch The Hills?
 
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