Big Sky Airlines will operate as a subsidiary of Mesaba Holdings by year-end if the Billings, Mont.-based Fairchild Metro III operator meets “certain labor conditions” set by its would-be parent company from Minneapolis. The proposed merger would create a new division within Mesaba Holdings, flying under an operating certificate and labor contracts separate from Mesaba Aviation. According to Mesaba, Big Sky would retain Billings as its base of operations and continue to serve its traditional network of Essential Air Service and niche turboprop markets. But as esoteric as Mesaba’s offer to buy the little airline from Billings may seem to the outside observer, the $3.5 million deal has raised emotions ranging from suspicion to outrage from pilots flying for Mesaba Aviation.
“What would Mesaba–a company whose revenues totaled $417 million last year–want with a $25 million-a-year EAS provider at a time most big regionals want to shed their financially and logistically burdensome 19-seat operations?” ask cynics. Mesaba Holdings president and CEO Paul Foley talked in terms of expansion opportunities “within the framework of [Mesaba’s] existing operations.” ALPA, on the other hand, characterized the deal as a classic case of “whipsawing”–introducing a lower-paid employee group into a company to undermine the bargaining position of an incumbent group.
