background followed by a question:

Last spring Delta Airlines unilaterally attempted to terminate a contract with Freedom Airlines (a partner that provides smaller regional jet service under the Delta Connection banner ) alleging Freedom was experiencing more flight cancellations than was allowed under the terms of the contract. Delta immediately quit scheduling flights for Freedom and Freedom's airplanes were parked. With over 30 aircraft parked it would not have taken long for Mesa Airlines, (Freedom's parent company) to go into bankruptcy because Freedom accounts for roughly 20 percent of Mesa's daily revenue.

Freedom quickly sued Delta but sought an injunction that would allow them to continue flight operations until this could all be worked out in the courts. Freedom argued that Delta had asked them to cancel many of the flights out of Kennedy New York to make airspace available for Delta's larger aircraft, and that they had agreed these "requested" cancellations would not count against Freedom with regards to contract compliance, and therefore Freedom had not broken any contract terms.

Freedom won their injunction and the judge forced Delta to put Freedom's planes back in the air; which they did.

Delta then appealed the injunction and the appeal finally went before the Atlanta 11th District Circuit Court of Appeals on January 30th 2009.

A press release came out a few days later outlining what had taken place, what each side's lawyers had argued etc at the appeal hearing, but no clear winner could be ascertained from the press release. Would the injunction be overturned and Freedom's planes once again parked, or would the injunction by the lower court be upheld until a trial could take place?

My question is this: How long from the date of the hearing can it take to get an opinion from the 11th Circuit? We are going on past 2 weeks now. Does anyone have any insight into the workings of the Circuit court, and how long it takes for the clerk to post an opinion? Thanks.

It can take months sometimes. You can contact the court to see if there is a time table.

Thanks for responding.