Okay, enough jokes about American pilots flying DC-3s for food.

In all seriousness, that lovely bird that was parked at DFW today is the Flagship Detroit, and unlike its sister ship that is encased under glass at the C.R. Smith Museum, this bird still flies.

The Flagship Detroit Foundation is dedicated to keeping the aircraft flying. Want to learn more? Click here.

If so, I offer this “scary” Halloween pumpkin, courtesy of “Cockpit Conversation.”

If you’ve never visited this blog, you need to. It is written by a female pilot who is based in Canada. As she says in her intro:

“This blog is about flying airplanes, learning to fly airplanes, advancing an aviation career in Canada, working as a commercial pilot, and commentary on aviation news. If you want the mixture of bad jokes, industry gossip, complaints, and not much of anything that comprises real cockpit conversations, log off the computer and go back to the crewroom.

It is not my intention to embarrass, slander or otherwise harm my employers, coworkers, customers or even my competitors. Therefore I will not identify companies or individuals, nor reveal corporate information, except in the context of public documents. There shall be no whining, no backstabbing, and no pictures of me, in or out of uniform.

I do reserve the right to make bad jokes.”

Check out the Aviatrix. She’s a good read.

We have it on the best authority that if the pilots at American Airlines don’t roll over for a new concessionary contract, this is what they are going to be reduced to flying. Thanks to one of our American friends who tells us these shots were taken at DFW today.

Here we have the Beatles. Or at least the Beatles as portrayed by US Airways’ General Counsel  Janet Dhillon, aka George, Hal Heule, SVP technical services/maintenance, aka Paul, and Rick Oehme, VP of Maintenence, aka Ringo. That leaves that guy with his tie untied over there on the right — CEO Doug Parker, aka John.

I think this one may take the prize for the day. I was going to save this for PlaneBusiness Banter, but hey, it’s too good not to post here.

Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest, aka Edna Turnblad, gets a thorough checking out by Dr. Kelleher. I mean, I don’t know what is better — Herb’s leer, or Gary’s expression of …..er…..whatever that expression is.

Is it just me, or does Herb look like he’s done this before?

Okay, I take back what I said. Scott, er, Toni, looks much better here, dontcha think? Better shot of those great legs too. Wonder what those clueless passengers in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport thought about all this? That one guy looks like he’s enjoying it.

Just a couple of comments about the decision that was handed down late yesterday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris in the case of Hawaiian Airlines versus Mesa Air Group.

Last night — on first blush, I thought Judge Faris had essentially split the difference in terms of what the airline had requested with his award of $80 million.

Not right. Not at all.

In reading through his decision more carefully today, it is clear that Judge Faris gave Hawaiian every single penny it asked for. According to Samuel Engel’s testimony from SH&E during the trial, the airline was due $71 million in damages for the period up until August. Tack on additional costs for the months of September and most of October, and that is where the $80 million figure comes in.

In the trial, Hawaiian was asking for a total of $173 million, but the rest of that amount was based on “speculation” for future losses.  In other words, it was an amount based on future go! operations.

So, in other words, Hawaiian Airlines is now free to sue Mesa again — for additional damages — for an additional period of time.

Today, Hawaiian said that it was now looking at its options in that regard.

Remember also that at the end of last quarter, Mesa had $250 million in cash in the bank. Based on that total, the judgment represents almost 1/3 of the airline’s available cash. To put it another way, if American Airlines were to face a similar damages judgment, the total would be comparable to a $1.7 billion award.

Not chicken feed. No matter how you look at it.

So — essentially Judge Faris not only delivered a ruling that was scathing of Mesa Air Group and its management, but he gave Hawaiian Airlines every penny it asked for.

But that was not the only “cost” to Mesa.

Remember that Aloha Airlines has its own anti-trust case coming up against Mesa next spring. In regards to that case, I think it would be fair to say that this trial succeeded in getting a great deal of information into the public record that the attorneys for Aloha can now use.

Just one additional tidbit. Aloha’s case is an anti-trust case. That means that any damages that could be potentially awarded to Aloha would be “trebled” or tripled – in plain English.

As for the market reaction, shares of Mesa fell 9% today, closing at $4.65, while shares of Hawaiian skyrocketed — both on the Mesa news and strong third quarter numbers. Shares here closed up 17% to $5.15.

Ticker: (Mesa:Nasdaq), (HA:AMEX)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airline stocks, airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Mesa Airlines