Exactly.

When DL and NW announced their merger, one of the first orders of business was to get the pilot contract issues solved. Both DL and NW pilot groups got an agreement from the company that no operations could be combined until the pilots had a deal. If the pilots from both companies had not solved their issues, then the merger would be placed on hold. No formal merger activity could occur until the both pilot groups had signed off on their seniority list integration and negotiated a joint contract.

To accomplish this, an expedited negotiating schedule was established. Both groups agreed that if a deal was not reached within 60 days, then it would go to binding arbitration, before a panel of 3 pre-selected members. It went to arbitration, it was settled there in about 3-4 months.

Only after the pilot issues were settled, did other formal merger activity then proceed. Pilot issues were settled long before a single operating certificate was granted. The day after SOC, DL aggressively began moving jets, pilot time, routes, etc. Within two years, it was done.

Contrast that with what the UACO management is doing to their two pilot groups, and its no wonder things are still so inefficient at UACO.