Pinnacle Airlines CEO Phil Trenary last month placed the responsibility with his pilots for moving forward with contract talks after the ALPA-represented group failed to ratify an agreement to amend their labor contract this fall. The sides had negotiated for some four-and-a-half years before the group’s Master Executive Council (MEC) this summer approved a tentative contract, which the pilots voted down.

“The ball is now in their court,” said Trenary. “We’ve asked [the MEC] to tell us what they need to do to move ahead…They will be doing some survey work over the next few weeks and get back to us, and at that point we’ll let the [National Mediation Board] know what the next steps should be.”

Pinnacle over the summer offered the pilots what it termed “industry competitive” improvements in compensation, benefits and work rules as well as a signing bonus. Nevertheless, 58 percent of the voting pilots chose to reject the offer.