r0cknry

Where you headed too now Rob?

tom11011

16th was President's Day, a bank holiday.

v1valarob

In class at TSA.

scudrunner13

Whats the latest at C5? Im looking to change airlines, primarily for a quick upgrade, however most of the captains ive flown with does not believe commutair will be around much longer...I really don't have my own opinion on it. How have operations been lately, mx wise and completions? Would it be worth it to start over and count on C5 for the next few years??

dr650

I think we will be around. Would I say 'you can count on it?' No. As far as upgrade, it's sitting at 2.5 years.

Duke990

I expect we'll be around for some time too. We're like a twinkie after a nuclear explosion. Check your PM's.

RonBearerJr

I just finished ground school, ATP and Type Rating check ride with CommutAir. Out of 5 in my group, everyone passed. I must say that the training department is outstanding. One of our first ground instructors who covered indoc in Cleveland, visited us while we were at Dulles, and covered systems for a few hours on his own time. It was clear that the staff was really dedicated. Each instructor throughout the course gave us their number and offered additional study sessions if needed. While the course was A LOT of information and it took a lot of work, the success of the new hires is a direct reflection of the commitment of CommutAir. Thanks!

rbtower2

So far everything is pretty quiet. Not to much going on. I guess status quo is a good thing. We finally had a increase in flying hrs for the first time in a while! Definitely makes a difference. I would guess as summer ramps up flying hrs will increase. The biggest thing for us on the horizon is our pilot contract is up at the end of the year. We can start negotiations as early as September I think and I believe with our FO shortage the company will be will to work with us. Overall I think it would be a good move to come here. As our Captain attrition picks up I could see our upgrade times dropping below 2 hrs, maybe as low as 1 1/2 years

MaxQ

Congratulations on finishing training.
Pleased to hear that it was a good experience. Kudos to those in the training dept who extended extra effort to help everyone get the knowlege/skills that are needed.
It seems the T Dept has a good "culture". Teaching! What a concept!

Hope you enjoy your years at CommutAir. Contrary to some of what you read on this board regarding regional flying, you will look back on it someday as some of the most enjoyable and rewarding flying in your career.
CommutAir seems to be making the effort to minimize the "meaness" factor that has sprung up with some of the regionals. ( and probably majors as well)

Duke990

Last week the president and majority owner of CommutAir spent about an hour talking to the recurrent class in IAD. He spent a little bit of time talking about the history of the company since he knew there were many of us that hadn't been with the company for many years. Eventually he made it to our operations over the last year. He admitted it was a tough year. FAR 117 plus the closing of the CLE MX base definitely messed us up. He said he wanted to stay in CLE but since that wasn't as option, hanger space in either IAD or EWR would be ideal. There was none to be had so the next best option was ALB. We lost approximately 80% of the MX employees in the move. Not to mention all the C-checks got backed up too.

The C-checks were contracted out to a company in RFD. They promised to finish in "x" amount of time and "x" amount of money. The first two planes took 100% more time than promised and the bill was 100% more than agreed upon. Not only that, ALB ended up having to fix a bunch of stuff that they were supposed to have already fixed. A new company was sourced in JAX and several of our planes have already gone through. They have (mostly) come back on time and on budget. Our backlog of C-checks should be cleared by the end of April or May. This should definitely improve our reliability and give us a couple planes for spares.

There was a Q&A and several questions were asked about like: How is United handling our operational difficulties? The pilot contract is amendable in 9 months. How is that coming? The Dash8 CPA is up in 3 years. Will that attempt to be expanded or possibly re-fleet? Will United want to re-sign? LOA8 caused increased spending on the company's part. Did United pick up that tab?

He said that are always in constant contact with United and many of the people he dealt with at Continental are at the helm at United now. They understand they put us in a bad bind with the MX thing and are fully aware of the things being put in place the remedy the situation...staffing in ALB, completing C-checks, new MX positions in IAD an EWR, and improved parts availability. They know our plan and are giving us time to improve.

He also said they are already working on the company side regarding the pilot contract. Costs generally always go up and he is trying to convince United that if they want their regional feed to survive, they are going to have to pay more. We'll see how that argument goes. lol.

Regarding the CPA, he said that as long as our reliability gets back to where it needs to be, he expects no problem at all renewing a CPA with United. As more regionals get large RJ's, the 50-seat RJ market is drying up. He believes this puts us in a good spot to continue flying.

LOA8 caused costs to go up at CommutAir and he said United has subsequently increased the amount they pay us per flight. He did not say how much or if it covered the whole cost but we are supposed to be back in the black and our costs are under control. He said the money is not the issue as much as our operational reliability. That is the main focus of the company, as it should be.

That's about all I can remember. He seemed very confident in our future and even hinted that a Part 135 Beech 1900 style thing could be very profitable if certain regs were changed. I think the sticking point is the limit on 9 seats or something. So, I guess we'll just have to see how things pan out.