rickair7777

Understandable.
....................

Bombardier Stev

I think there are some interesting points here. I can imagine the followup questions to him after testifying to congress about the pilot shortage:

Mr. Chip, you stated that you believe the government must step in and train more pilots for the regional airlines; Didn't Skywest have 4000 pilots plus at Expressjet, then you dismantled Expressjet and fired those pilots. Weren't this 4000 pilots trained pilots?

So then isn't it true that there are plenty of pilots available, trained and experienced pilots but you would just rather have the government pay to train someone who will work for 1/4 what a currently qualified pilot demands?

Mr. Chip, should the government fund and train a bunch more doctors and make them work for 25% of what current doctors make, while at the same time forcing unemployment on the experienced doctors?

Mr. Chip, do you believe that these new 200 hour pilots that you want to hire and that you want the government to allow to fly are as qualified as the 4000 pilots you are sending out into the streets?

Mr. Chip, if regional pilot starting pay was 80,000 per year, about the same as a recent Depaul University graduate in marketing or a University of Illinois engineer, do you believe that there would be a lot more people willing to enter into the pilot career and therefore end the so called "shortage"?

Mr Chip, suppose you were having bypass surgery next month and you were told that the Dr had been fired but not to worry because a newly trained doctor has just been signed off to handle your operation. The cost to you is going to be the same but the insurance company will save a lot of money and make it more efficient.

Duesenflieger

Great post, man!

WesternSkies

No. No it wasn't.
A) nobody has been fired.
B) Delta told Skywest that they Delta were not buying more flying from ASA. These guys still have jobs because skyw inc was able to move early on other carrier flying.
D) united bought 5 more years of ExpressJet flying. If anyone was getting shutdown because of the pilot group it would have been them, not Asa.
C) it what world does a business owner turn down customers because you think he hates the cashiers.

Complain but don't be moronic about it.

Nevjets

All this could've been prevented if they would've merged all three airlines.

Next, what about the expressjet pilot group do you perceive that would've have been them shut down?

gojo

Anything that has happened and is happening at ASA/Express jet should directly reflect on Skywest and not Express Jet as a separate entity. Skywest manipulated it to its current state, and they could've changed their course at any time. I believe this was what Skywest and Delta wanted for their various business plans. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the future regarding the Delta flying that Skywest is providing. Skywest usually comes out on top, and there's probably another regional shuffle or two yet to happen that Skywest will benefit from. Time will tell. And you know what they say about hindsight

amcnd

Delta has made it know they want 3 regionals... And SkyWest has made it known they dont like flying OPP (other peoples planes) put 2 and 2 together and you can see what the trend is.. ASA suffered for the problem of being Delta owned before and costs were high.. XJT was a buy or someone else does.. (Mesa,Repubic?) that was more a game of chess move.. that they didn't think through...(and people got let go for it)

Look at Endeavor. There Delta owned, but dont think for a second if Delta sold them the next day they would tell them they are to expensive.. same thing is happening with Amazon/whole foods. Amazon will offset the cost of Whole foods price drips with there other dealings. That will get rid of the competition, then prices will raise back up..

It's business boys. And we're just the subcontractor....

rickair7777

Majors are trending to a preference to owning their own RJ's...makes it MUCH easier to quickly fire and replace an under-performing regional.

But they are generally OK with an exception to that rule...SKW has a very long history of stability and performance, and no union to go on strike. Also since they can be relied on, it doesn't hurt to have SKW own the planes (frees up cash/borrowing power for other things). Also SKW owns some gates in a few key places....

It's actually good for majors to have a mix of regionals who own and regionals who operate, as well as wholly-owned.

Regionals who own their planes free up cash/borrowing power. But they must be reliable long-term because you can't fire them unless you can replace the planes (or no longer need them).

Regionals who operate OPP are convenient and safe, because you can fire them and re-assign the planes as needed. But they still have a contract, so you can't fire them without cause (unless you buy them out).

Wholly-owned are useful as accumulators...you can shrink or expand as desired without any contractual snags, buyouts, lawsuits, etc. Downside to them is that they'll eventually get big for their britches and want a SLI with mainline...so you have to manage that with flow, or just comair them and start over ever 20 years or so.

zondaracer

^^^ this. There's an opportunity for 30 70-seat jets in the Delta scope. Also, ASA is repainting 22 jets in United colors. United is scoped out so that means another regional is losing 22 70-seat jets. The only regionals that operate 70 seat jets for UAX are Gojet (25), SkyWest (20), Mesa (20), and Republic (38).
This

hawk21

TSA Holdings is in trouble I hear. Probably GoJet.