Probe

The longer nosegear always sounded like a catastrophe to me. Not only do we have to worry about tail strikes, now we have to worry about 3 pointers, or landing on the nose wheel first. The allowable pitch window for touchdown went way down.
Mr. Boeing should be taken out back and shot.

spaaks

3 x $30/hr is still only $90/hr 😎 haha

Itsajob

Even at 300% pay outsourcing is way less expensive. It has already been mentioned that Ual doesn’t pay that, Mesa does, and only on certain flights. If the 76 seaters were flown by mainline they’d have mainline pilot pay, flight attendants, mechanics, parts inventory, training cost, etc. That is a lot of high dollar expense and only 76 seats paying for all of that. A common type like the 319neo or max 7 would cut down on the cost of adding a separate fleet type, require fewer pilots, and have more revenue seats to cover the cost. Don’t shoot the messenger, just thinking like a manager. The regionals can’t find enough pilots to even cover their attention and what is showing up to class is not exactly quality. Months in training and 4 times the normal IOE is common now. Even if the unthinkable happened and mainline gave away scope, the market has cut managements ability to grow the regional numbers since they don’t have the crews to cover what is there. I think that the companies best hope is to replace a bunch of 50 seaters with 76 seaters, but still have to add mainline aircraft to cover the shrinking supply of regional pilots. Being that the odds of mainline relaxing scope are very low that could be good for us. 76 seaters just don’t generate enough revenue, but higher paying max7’s or 319neo’s may.

Grumble

Five 76 seaters arriving to ORD at 0700 fills up a wide body, ever seen how many come rolling in on the first bank?. It’s not about the cost of the ticket to move someone from say MCI to DEN, but MCI to say SYD. The game is to generate connections, fill hubs and thus airplanes. Smaller markets that don’t warrant a 319 or bus, but are under served or have no service are where the RJs belong.

If a 175 flies 6 short legs a day in and out of a hub, that’s potentially 228 pax being delivered from and again back to smaller rural areas. If the cost of the crew operating that jet between UAL payrates and say Mesa is the make or break for the profitability of said airframe, then clearly there’s a management/marketing problem.

Scope needs to be reigned in. Not relaxed, and not held as is. Period.

Larry in TN

The E175 at mainline wouldn't be a 76-seater. Without the 76-seat limit, they wouldn't put 12 FC seats in it, as they do at UX, and it would likely be about an 82-seater. Per-seat crew costs would still be higher but that would help a little bit.

But, no. I don't think they're planning on doing that.

Andy

Are there any international flights out of ORD in the morning? I thought most of the international banks were late afternoon/evening. And no nonstops ORD-SYD.

A major problem with most of our hubs (SFO, LAX, ORD, EWR) is that there is no gate space. Upgauging to mainline and reducing frequency on some of those city pairs would help the entire operation run more smoothly. But I just get paid to fly airplanes; how the airline operates and what metal they choose to fly is a management function.

There aren't many city pairs that management couldn't upgauge and reduce frequency, but I figure a pilot shortage will eventually force them to do just that.

bigfatdaddy

PVG leaves at 10:00 am. NRT PEK and HKG leave around noon to 13:25

Andy

Thanks; I'm wrong again (nothing new).

bigfatdaddy

No not at all....this is just the 777. The bulk of our flying is late afternoon/evening

Grumble

Already mentioned, but I was just making a point for arguments sake. That being that there are a lot of rural markets out there that can collectively pump a lot of traffic into the hubs.

SFO-MSP should not be where RJs are operating though. That’s just cruel to the pax.