Mesa Files for Chapter 11

So Mesa as wel all know is Chapter 11. Somthing I do not think many of us in industry or who follow close enough are suprised about. I think many of us are hoping that it turns into a Ch. 7 filing as unfortuneate as it would be for those who made the mistake of thinking Mesa might be a nice place to work. As it is right now they lost their United CR2 flying a few months back, they are in heated war with Delta to maintain Freedom's flying and losing badly and pretty much every other airline they fly for wants them to die a painful sudden death. I am curious though as to a few things. The first is the possibility of an outright sale of assets. Somthing tells me there is a reason Skywest has been hording money like Scrooge McDuck. This might be it. Right now they have over a billion dollars packed away cash so to speak. They have been eyeballing a way to get into USAirways flying for a while now too. On the other hand, flying the 900 for US would create issues with their Delta contracts unless they created a spinoff carrier to fly them. Than, you have to look at the fact that as it is the 900 flying Mesa does for US is already in violation of the USAPA contract for US East pilots. Now while it is quite possible based on that contract that we could see CR9's flying as mainline metal at US I would be extremely skeptical. So what happens there?

Next, the DH8 flying out west for US..... Somthing tells me Piedmont will soon have some new crew bases west of the Rockies. Inside PDT there has been alot of talking on various wave lengths from trying to get the Tyrolean 300's that are being disposed of to opening up PHX and just taking the Mesa Dashes on fire sale after a eventual demise of J.O.'s airline chop shop. It will be interesting to see.

Now back to the Delta side of the equation...... As the contract is written if either carrier declares bankruptcy the other has the right to immediately without prior notice terminate contract with them. So, since Delta has been looking to offload a little feed anyway and trying to kill Freedom just as well will we see that contract in the coming days dissapear? Rumor and grumbling has it that Express Jet would be the carrier to provide the lift Delta does replace which would be a good boost for them because they are just above break even right now at XJT.

Opinions...... questions........ thoughts......... Afterall, a death of Mesa would be HUGE for the regional industry as a whole. It would create massive expansion chances for other better carriers as well as unleash the flood gates for hiring and furlough call back. Unrelated American Eagle is going to start hiring as it is very shortly to fill the positions for all those shiny new CRJ's that will be humming around ORD and DFW.