It's taken eight months, but the Dreamliner appears to have finally found a home: Everett (WA). The Seattle Times quotes an anonymous source close to the team who says the recommendation will be finalized at the December 15th meeting of Boeing's board of directors. Officially, the Boeing line is, "No decision has been made and no decision will be made until the results of our site evaluation are fully vetted with our board of directors." That word from Thomas Downey, Boeing Commercial Aircraft VP of communications.

The leaders of the Atlantic Coast Airlines pilot group have informed the Mesa Airlines Board of Directors that its 1,600 ACA pilots oppose any takeover of their airline. In a letter to the Mesa board, Captain Stephen Hunt, chairman of the ACA unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, said his members strongly support ACA's plan to create a new low-cost carrier called Independence Air rather than be swallowed up by Mesa and remain a feeder carrier for United Airlines. "Let me be crystal clear: the pilots of Atlantic Coast Airlines have absolutely no interest in being acquired by Mesa or deviating in any other way from our management's independent vision," Capt. Hunt said.

Concorde frenzy seems to know no end. A London auction of Concorde memorabilia pulled in some heavy dollars... well ahead of the most flighty expectations. The crown jewel of the show, though, was the very nose of the Concorde, itself.  Retired in October, the nose cone was auctioned off to a Hungarian-born bidder by the name of Ferenc Gaspar, who claims he got the bargain of the event... for only $551,600!

Three days of mediated talks between the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) and Mesaba Airlines yielded little progress this week, prompting mediators to offer binding arbitration to settle the protracted contract dispute. The parties received a letter from the National Mediation Board early Friday morning citing an impasse in the bargaining process. The letter urges an agreement as soon as possible and offers binding arbitration to resolve the outstanding issues. If both parties accept the offer, a neutral arbitrator will decide the outcome of roughly two dozen issues that remain open. These remaining issues include job security, compensation, retirement and work rules.