How about Comair stapled onto the bottom of the list (along with Compass and Mesaba) and getting all jet aircraft back onto mainline seniority lists.
Now if the two MEC's involved are thinking, they'd find a way to do this. Or at the least, get the airplanes and furlough the regional pilots, putting all the jets back on mainline property, making them mainline jobs.
Sucks for the guys at the regionals, good for the industry as a whole. Heck I'd take a furlough to make this happen, no questions asked.
jtrain,
I really enjoy reading your posts. I'm not picking on you, but the sentiment you reflected is something I heard for the last 4 years at the regionals. If I had a nickle for everytime I heard that in each iteration, I'd be retired drinking Mai Tais and being fanned by my harem. Unfortunately, I fly freight for a living.
I have a couple issues with these sentiments.
First, why should CMR guys be stapled? They're owned by an airline, and should have been merged on the seniority list when bought. That goes for ExpressJet -nee` Britt, Eagle, Henson/Jetstream/Penn Central, ASA and prolly someone else I forgot.
Second, the "airplanes powered by Xmeans" should go, as should the "x" number of seats belong at mainline.
If an aeroplane has Delta painted on the side, it should be flown by pilots on the DL list. If a t-prop has USAirways painted on the side, it should be flown by LCC pilots. When I started my career, and "RJ's" didn't exist, the sentiment was "Jets belong at mainline". Phase II was then "Jets with more than 50 seats belong at mainline". As I left it was "Jets with more than 100 seats belong at mainline" I, personally, don't agree with any of it. The first part of my career was prosperous solely due to the evolution of the commuters, and I went to one that no body was applying to as it was stagnant and had no future. In spite of that, I would have been happier to be hired into DL at the bottom of the list riding a 19 seater to -ville and -burg (Yeah I stole that from staplegun...) layovers and retired on the 777.
IMHO, until the entire thought process of "Props are OK at commuters" stops, there will be no progress on regaining scope. Managment will cry, "We can't afford to run these planes.". I say, you make millions a year, so you should be smart enough to find away to satisfy that market demand.