'Compass' Points To New Future For Regional Operator

Things are looking up for Mesaba Airlines, after years of ennui brought on by bankruptcy, and uncertainty about its future role as a contract operator for Northwest Airlines. On Monday, the two carriers announced a signed agreement allowing Northwest to buy Mesaba from former parent company MAIR Holdings, Inc.

With the agreement comes a new lease on life for Mesaba, as Northwest's regional subsidiary. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reports Mesaba will also soon receive 36 new Bombardier CRJ700s from Northwest.

In addition to better pay for existing Mesaba pilots -- who had been grudgingly preparing to fly turboprops, after Mesaba dumped its old Avro RJs last year -- the new role for Mesaba means the carrier will also be looking for new pilots in the cockpit, as well as new cabin crews and maintenance workers.

"We are ecstatic," said Tim Evenson, president of the Mesaba flight attendants union, who added the new planes could double Mesaba's flight attendant ranks from their current 300 members.

"The human toll of this bankruptcy on employees at Mesaba has been immense," said Mesaba pilots union chairman Tom Wychor. "None of our families had any assurances that we were still going to have a career" just weeks ago, he added.

The 214 pilots currently on furlough from Mesaba may also soon be receiving phone calls to come back to work, according to the union.

In its role as a Northwest subsidiary, Mesaba will fly the 76-passenger CRJ900s, in addition to its current 50-plane fleet of Saab 340 turboprops. Northwest's "other" regional operation, Compass Airlines, will fly 36 similar-sized Embraer 175s.

All in all, it's a dramatic turnaround for the Eagan, MN-based carrier... which spent most of last year fighting its workers for steep pay concessions, in order to stay in business. Even then, there were no assurances from Northwest it would keep Mesaba on as a regional operator, nevermind as a subsidiary.

Despite the happy news, there are signs of trouble on the horizon... as the chairman of Northwest's pilots union says the new deal with Mesaba conflicts with terms in the airline's contract with its mainline pilots.

Those pilots will need to grant Northwest permission to allow Mesaba to fly the RJs, said Dave Stevens, and "the Northwest pilots expect something in return."

FMI: www.nwa.com, www.mesaba.com