This year’s RAA Convention couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time and place for Memphis, Tenn.’s hometown airline. The proud new owner of a second operating subsidiary and revamped service contract with Northwest Airlines, Pinnacle Airlines has officially shed the manacles of a highly restrictive code-share deal and joined the open market for regional services. Now comes the time to prove it can match or better the costs of some of the industry’s leanest and cheapest suppliers of regional feed–and do it while upholding the reputation for reliability it earned while almost single-handedly building Northwest Airlines’ regional jet presence during the first half of the decade.
Today, with Northwest’s buyout of Minneapolis-based Mesaba Aviation and the launch of fellow wholly owned subsidiary Compass Airlines, Pinnacle faces a challenge unlike any since CEO Phil Trenary arrived in Memphis 10 years ago to lead Northwest’s newly purchased Jetstream 31 operation, then known as Express Airlines I. Of course, times have changed since Trenary and company transformed the company from the Airlink family’s “black sheep” to Northwest’s favorite son, renamed itself Pinnacle Airlines and built a 124-strong fleet of 44- and 50-seat Bombardier CRJs.
