Pinnacle rumors are plentiful!!

M

meritflyer

Well-Known Member
1. Pinnalce is buying CMR;
2. Going to be awarded some United flying; and
3. Will be flying CR9's for NWA out of MEM.

Unless Pinnacle has a pot of gold sitting around, I find the purchase of Comair hard to fathom from a financial perspective since all Pinnacle has been doing lately is borrowing cash for their Q4 and CR9 operation (ATL) not to mention cash infusing Colgan since Colgan has been unprofitable this year ('07). It'd sure take a toll on their already strained balance sheet. The only way I can see Pinnacle taking on CMR is in exchange for a long term contract with Delta which includes a very healthy debt service payment included.

Kellwolf?
 
meritflyer said:
1. Pinnalce is buying CMR;
2. Going to be awarded some United flying; and
3. Will be flying CR9's for NWA out of MEM.

Unless Pinnacle has a pot of gold sitting around, I find the purchase of Comair hard to fathom from a financial perspective since all Pinnacle has been doing lately is borrowing cash for their Q4 and CR9 operation (ATL) not to mention cash infusing Colgan since Colgan has been unprofitable this year ('07). It'd sure take a toll on their already strained balance sheet. The only way I can see Pinnacle taking on CMR is in exchange for a long term contract with Delta which includes a very healthy debt service payment included.

Kellwolf?
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paycut time
 
Pinnacle is "Simply The Best" for a reason. The company does not have the money to pay the pilots more but they can buy 2 airlines and 2 new fleet types. FO's can be on food stamps and attrition can be costing the company 2x as much as the cost of a new contract (the difference) but that doesn't matter. I have heard all these rumors PLUS the rumor that we are about to get a good bit of United flying as some new but mostly as a replacement for MESA cause evidently they are not "simply the best". I mean no harm of offense by this but this company has taken a $400M cash reserve balance sheet to a very low level. We need to go back and look at MGMT's roots. How many Airlines has Uncle Phil bankrupted? The head of Colgan is from what regime?
 
screw rumors- here is some TRUTH! We (9e) for the NW only flying has over 3,000 hours in open time! This cannot be covered by reserves or even with our current staffing. Evidently all the flying was not "released" to pref-bid so when all the schedules were put out these pairings were not in the system. What is great is we are already low on reserves this month with more flying coming next month! This is great!
 
higney85 said:
screw rumors- here is some TRUTH! We (9e) for the NW only flying has over 3,000 hours in open time! This cannot be covered by reserves or even with our current staffing. Evidently all the flying was not "released" to pref-bid so when all the schedules were put out these pairings were not in the system. What is great is we are already low on reserves this month with more flying coming next month! This is great!
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Is HR still pushing that jet course nonsense even when someone is over 1000TT and 100 multi or close to it?
 
meritflyer said:
1. Pinnalce is buying CMR;
2. Going to be awarded some United flying; and
3. Will be flying CR9's for NWA out of MEM.

Unless Pinnacle has a pot of gold sitting around, I find the purchase of Comair hard to fathom from a financial perspective since all Pinnacle has been doing lately is borrowing cash for their Q4 and CR9 operation (ATL) not to mention cash infusing Colgan since Colgan has been unprofitable this year ('07). It'd sure take a toll on their already strained balance sheet. The only way I can see Pinnacle taking on CMR is in exchange for a long term contract with Delta which includes a very healthy debt service payment included.

Kellwolf?
Click to expand...


Buying CMR? Heard it, don't see it as happening. There's no way we've got the cash for it, and no bank in their right mind would loan us the money for it. Nevermind the fact that share holders would want to kill PT for a stunt like that, no matter what the stock price is. They don't have all the kinks out with Colgan yet. The LAST thing we need is another airline to potentially integrate, esp one the size of CMR.

The United flying, I could see happening. Like Ken said, I've heard that it's to replace the Mesa flying that United is not happy with. Then again, I'll believe it when I see the airplanes on the ramp. I believe the Delta flying. I saw a CRJ-900 in a Delta paint scheme in RIC last week....and I knew the CA and FO.

Not sure about the NWA -900s. I don't think Mesaba would be too happy about that, but then again, NWA LOVES to drive a wedge b/w their regional partners to stir the pot. I did hear that we would be doing MEM-ATL for Delta in the -900, but last I heard that violated our ASA with NWA b/c it's flying into a NWA hub. Someone suggested they might try to get around that part of the contract by saying that it's got a NWA flight number since it's with a codeshare partner. I don't think that argument would fly, but I wouldn't be surprised to see management try it anyway. Like the United flying, I'll believe it when I can physically touch the airframe myself.
 
higney85 said:
screw rumors- here is some TRUTH! We (9e) for the NW only flying has over 3,000 hours in open time! This cannot be covered by reserves or even with our current staffing. Evidently all the flying was not "released" to pref-bid so when all the schedules were put out these pairings were not in the system. What is great is we are already low on reserves this month with more flying coming next month! This is great!
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Are they offering premium pay??
 
blee256 said:
Are they offering premium pay??
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150%......for CAs. Plenty of FO open time out there, but once again we're left out in the dark. I guess they figure since a lot of the FOs in MEM only got sub-80 hour lines, they'll pick it up and be happy about it. I got a 95 hour line, so I'm not even looking at open time. At this point in negotiations, even if I got an 80 hour line, I think I'd probably suck it up and say "Too bad. Good luck getting it covered."

You still in town for training or have you headed back up north/west yet?
 
blee256 said:
Are they offering premium pay??
Click to expand...


They have resorted to 150% pay for CA's only to pick up trips in the first week of the month. They say they have the rest covered but I still see a ton in there. I will not be helping out especially for regular pay. Everyone here has come to the conclusion to "let the wheels fall off". While I would absolutely love to get a new base (hopefully somewhere out west with mountains) and fly the -900 (if nothing else just to have the auto temp controller :rolleyes:) Most are in the mindset here that we need to teach mgmt a lesson and get a contract first and foremost. Working all of us to a burn out point and trying to get away with paying FO's and CA's the same to fly the -200 and -900 will not last. We can't staff what we have and everyone here has had enough of this 8 year old contract. While it is unfortunate that the flight crews are now limiting themselves to simply flying the contract we "can't fix stupid". There have been 2 flights in the last 4 weeks that I have had cancelled b/c they forgot to send a crewmember in to operate it. Each time I saw the issue ahead of time and called scheduling. They did not care to even hear about it and when I called to tell them we don't have a complete crew they just said "oops" I guess that one is cancelled. That is not a way to run an airline and this company will learn the hard way between attrition (up a net of 9 pilots through all of 07 after hiring hundreds) and fines for cancellations the company can only screw themselves for soo long before something must happen. I am eager to see the results of the next mediated session. We have proposals on the table, a 99% strike vote, and are willing to meet whenever. The company has yet to even issue a retort and has been apprehensive to meet. Time will tell.
 
And it looks like now that the holidays are over, the exodus of CAs has started again with people flowing up and outta here. This summer is gonna be a Nightmare....and that N is capitalized for a reason. Now, if they come to their senses and agree on a decent contract, it might not be too bad. A lot of people (FOs in particular) might stick around a bit longer, and those of us here might actually start recommending the place to our friends. Right now, I wouldn't tell my worst enemy this place is good. Then again, my arch nemesis is at the AFW FSDO anyway.

I still love that we offered to enter into accelerated negotiations to get a deal done by the end of 2007, and management said we were bargaining in bad faith b/c we wouldn't give into their FO pay band-aid.
 
kellwolf said:
You still in town for training or have you headed back up north/west yet?
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I'll be in mem tomorrow, until tuesday nite for recurrent ground. Are you gonna be around, if have time lets try to meet up. you can fill me on all the pinnacle gossip. haha.
 
kellwolf said:
And it looks like now that the holidays are over, the exodus of CAs has started again with people flowing up and outta here. This summer is gonna be a Nightmare....and that N is capitalized for a reason. Now, if they come to their senses and agree on a decent contract, it might not be too bad. A lot of people (FOs in particular) might stick around a bit longer, and those of us here might actually start recommending the place to our friends. Right now, I wouldn't tell my worst enemy this place is good. Then again, my arch nemesis is at the AFW FSDO anyway.

I still love that we offered to enter into accelerated negotiations to get a deal done by the end of 2007, and management said we were bargaining in bad faith b/c we wouldn't give into their FO pay band-aid.
Click to expand...

was that the 31$ an hour thing for first years?
 
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