calmwinds

So, all Mesa needs to compete is pay the rates Endeavor pays, have the benefits Endeavor has, and pretty close to a flow to Delta.... We will always lose to the wholly owned regionals as a way to the majors.

No Land 3

The only thing that would make business sense would be for consolidation of the regionals.
Removing the 1500 hour rule would make JO happy, but I am willing to bet that some airlines would make it a requirement that their regional feed only use ATP’s in the cockpit.
I bet if Mesa did real home basing and positive spaced people into and out of domicile, with a minimum of four days off between trips, with the option of 300% pay flying on days off, your staffing issues would vanish.

calmwinds

That would be positive, particularly if they paid for hotels at the beginning and end of trips for commuters if there isn’t a flight on the same day. Probably require reopening the contract. That still wouldn’t resolve the training bottleneck —- which is really causing the net loss of pilots.

Out Of Trim

Exactly. You would think that something as simple as this concept ... paying your employees commensurate with their worth ... would not escape management’s philosophy. But no, rather than do this, they will concoct every scheme in the book. And, they are NOT working. In the long run these large hiring bonuses, 300% for uncovered flying, extensive hotel stays for protracted training, and paying people for 6 months before you get one productive day from them ... these things are absolutely LUDICROUS. They are indicative of (industry-wide) management that is clueless to the basics of sound operational and financial business practices. If one were to add up all of those additional costs and then also factor in all of the resultant loss of revenue from returned flying, and perhaps even forgone opportunity to pick up additional flying or partner up with other airlines to cover some of their unsatisfyable demand ... that number would be staggering. The Mesa payscale could easily be another 50% over what it is now and the company would still be more profitable, yet without many of the heightened and unsustainable problems that it’s having. It is, however, being run by greedy little madmen not well intentioned businessmen, and with completely ineffectual union leadership. Until those two things change, nothing else will.

No Land 3

The training bottleneck is simple, buy large enough block times of the sim!!!
Their insistence of buying just enough time, just in time bull crap is the root cause of this.

calmwinds

Or, do what every other regional flying the Ejet does.... buy your own Ejet SIM and put it at Flight Safety and rent it out to others when you aren’t using it. Instead, Mesa acts as if the Ejet contract will be cancelled at any moment and only purchases short term blocks of SIM time. (That may not be so dumb given our performance on the Ejet).

maxpower220

No, the cause is not enough instructors. I just finished sims and saw 4 blocks for Mesa that were totally open, no students or instructors. I was scheduled twice with no instructor scheduled.

calmwinds

Well, Mesa’s management is lying to us then. What is new with that? Pathetic.

NovemberBravo

Blocks become open sometime when people flunkout as well and they can’t fill the slot fast enough.

Out Of Trim

I can’t offer any insight as to the EJet side of the house. But, when I was through PHX last December, I was told by no less than four different CRJ instructors that Mesa brass decided to take a pass on a great opportunity to purchase the relatively new CRJ sim that’s a few spots over from the one that Mesa most often uses at the AA center.

As best I recall, I think the sim was priced at $15mil, which was roughly half of its cost when it was new. Managements biggest concern, according to those I spoke with, was underutilization in that Mesa would be stuck with a lot of open sim time, for which, they would not be able to find other renters. The unanimous consensus was that such would never remotely be the case, and I have to agree. CRJ sim time, particularly for sims located in North America, will continue to be an issue.

This latest claim, if true, that Mesa has and continues to be letting bought and paid for sim time go unused is totally baffling.