Mesaba Negotiations update for September 29, 2006

The AMFA negotiating team did meet with Mesaba management on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The company provided AMFA with a
comprehensive proposal on Tuesday afternoon that showed some slight movement on the duration of the agreement from the original proposal of 6 years, conditional on
"triggers" that assume either 4 years if Mesaba remains a 49 Saab operator or a duration of 5.5 years if Mesaba grows to a 79 aircraft fleet. Mesaba has also recognized
some credits to AMFA in the "other" category that would reduce the overall hard dollar ask from 19.4% reduction in pay, benefits and work rules to 17.5%. However, even
with that, the overall wage and premium cut for AMFA would still be 10.8% with a two year longevity freeze, an increase of the pay scale from seven years to ten, and 1%
annual raises. There is some slight wage recapture in the fourth and fifth years of the contract if Mesaba grows to a 79, 99 or 119 aircraft fleet. Mesaba still proposed
many language changes that affect the overall compensation of our membership, but failed to acknowledge that lack of raises for AMFA for the last four years or the loss of
20 AMFA jobs since the 49 Saab baseline headcount of AMFA was originally set in this endeavor.
We have begun to formulate our counterproposal and have tentatively agreed to continue negotiations with the company on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the
week of October 10th.
Additionally, today Mesaba filed for a renewed 1113c motion. The hearing is scheduled to begin on October 10th.

Nate