Originally Posted by Hedley

I don’t think that he’s wrong. Kirby does want a bunch of 175’s to feed, but he wants them farmed out to the lowest bidder. He also knows that we won’t give an inch on scope and that we wouldn’t agree to B-scale rates for United pilots to fly the 175 on our certificate. We’re taking delivery of around 100 max’s this year. We just exercised options to buy even more for future deliveries. As much as I agree that Kirby would love the rj’s, he knows that we won’t budge on scope and bringing them over to UAL would cost more than he wants to pay. He also knows that reduced frequency using larger aircraft requires fewer pilots. He seems to be doubling down on larger aircraft and reduced frequency. He needs to keep that carrot dangling out there until we have the lift to park the 145’s and 200’s. At that point UAX feed will consist of the current allotment of 70/76 seaters and UAL will do the rest with reduced frequency. The 175’s that United owns can eventually be moved to the exclusive carriers and provide plenty of seats for Aviate graduates to build experience.

Originally Posted by fasteddie800

Yeah, been scratching my head about the whole thing, but this is what I came up with as well. An element of UA utilizing the -900s to get some (relatively) instant lift, and "shrinking Mesa to profitability" by eventually getting rid of the -900s and moving everything to the ERJ.

Mesa has -175s and -900s, and what sounds like enough pilot staffing to cover flying maybe 65% of each fleet.

Take those -900s, paint "United Express" on the side, and you've got more lift.

While you're painting planes (and I suppose some changes to the interior to accommodate the AA to UA switch), run as many of those CRJ pilots through ERJ training as you can.

Eventual goal is to have the ERJs staffed at 100%, and the CRJs gotten rid of.

Related, there is an ongoing push throughout the industry to get rid of the 50 seater CRJ-200 / ERJ-145. Both due to customer experience, and because the aircraft are just old. The mainline carriers don't want to give up the advantages of outsourcing their flying to the regionals though, so I suspect there will be a shuffle amongst the carriers. As CRJ-200s / ERJ-145s go away, carriers that had flown those aircraft will get CRJ-700s or ERJs "handed down" to them.

Originally Posted by pangolin

This is the short term plan with one or two modifications. We can double the staffing for existing 175s and still fly the 900s because we are not making good utilization of what we have. Kirby said as much at the training center speech. So it might be a couple years to ramp up enough to bring 175/170s back abd park 900s. Also no 900 will get United paint. They will all be mesa livery. Because this is a short term fix.

Originally Posted by idlethrust

I never understood adding aircraft to your certificate that’s not in production anymore and customers despise .Still baffles me .

Originally Posted by TransWorld

Do you think the less than 100 seat market will vanish?

Do you have a prediction of about when?

Originally Posted by LizzyBorden

Have no idea....

Originally Posted by TransWorld

So you are just speculating with no facts to back it up. Talking through your hat…

Originally Posted by LizzyBorden

Things I am not:

1) Nostradamus
2) Dionne Warwick at the Psychic Friends Network

Of course its speculation...amazing you thought otherwise.

Originally Posted by LizzyBorden

So lets see here...

Still hanging out in regional forums. check
Barks about scope and puffs out chest with a sense of self importance. check
Tells others to check their attitude if they want to work at (insert airline here). check


I have seat requests that have been in my coat pocket longer than you have been at United.

Originally Posted by Sniper66

enjoy your job then
30 years at Mesa ?

ok

carry on