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Am West won't allow 190 regional flying

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Victor Meldrew

I dont bloody believe it!
Joined
Jul 7, 2005
Posts
258
An expected plan by America West Airlines and US Airways to contract a regional operator to fly up to 25 Embraer 190s once the two airlines merge faces opposition from the low-cost carrier’s pilots union, which says it expects to “retain that flying” for mainline pilots.

The America West unit of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) tells ATI the union is maintaining that any Embraer aircraft in the “E-190 and above” size range and any Bombardier aircraft in the “CSeries and above” range (effectively between 90 and 130 seats) fall within current scope clauses, and should only be operated by mainline employees.

E-190 flying is not permitted under America West’s current pilot contract. In contrast, US Airways affiliate carriers can fly up to 25 E-190s “under certain provisions” contained in the latest collective bargaining agreement between the major and its pilots, a spokesman with the US Airways unit of ALPA says.

“This is where the language in both contracts” differ, he says, adding that the issue “will involve some working out”.

Transition plan talks between America West pilots and management are scheduled for August 9 and 15. At that time, negotiators for the low-cost carrier’s pilot group will make clear that E-190 flying is “a huge issue for us and I think that given the state of the industry and the number of furloughs, we want to protect those jobs”, says a spokesman with the America West unit of ALPA.

He notes that that the union is “willing to discuss competitive pay rates with the company” for E-190 flying.

“Our immediate concern is working on a transition plan that will solve these major issues to close the [merger] deal,” he adds.

ATI yesterday exclusively revealed that America West and US Airways are issuing a formal request for proposal (RFP) for a regional carrier to operate up to 25 E-190s for the carriers when they eventually merge.

An America West spokesman confirmed that an “early stage RFP” has been circulated to Air Wisconsin, Mesa Air Group, and Republic Airways Holdings.

It is understood that Republic has already asked its pilots’ union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 747, to quickly amend the current collective bargaining agreement to allow the regional airline group to operate the E-190 under the parameters of US Airways’ jets-for-jobs program.

Mesa currently operates Bombardier CRJ900s for America West. But America West ALPA says the CRJ900 flying “was negotiated to a certain limit and amount”, and that the union is not willing to make the same concessions for the E-190.

“We don’t want to see anything that violates [America West pilots’] contract,” says US Airways ALPA. “That is why we’re trying to work out some of these areas. We expect the new management to respect those differences and to work with those union groups.”
 
This is the best news I've read in a while.

I hope that the 190 stays where it belongs... at mainline.
 
labbats said:
This is the best news I've read in a while.

I hope that the 190 stays where it belongs... at mainline.

I agree. Glad to see AmWest pilots fighting the good fight, keeping those jobs at mainline. Now I wonder what that payrate is gonna be...
 
They can configure the 190 to 89 seats.
 
labbats said:
This is the best news I've read in a while.

I hope that the 190 stays where it belongs... at mainline.

To bad they didn't do the same with CRJ900's. It seems like it's a little late for this, but it's good to see.
 
Where in the article does it say Am West won't allow 190 regional flying? If I am not mistaken as this merger is being pushed through, management holds most of the cost cutting cards. The Am West pilots union will have its hands full simply trying to avoid furloughs during the merger. I can see management telling them if you want the 190s, your junior pilots will be looking at JetBlue -20%.
 
Because CRJ's are pieces of crap. :)

Seriously though, I really hope these planes stay mainline. At some point a line needs to be drawn in the sand. If not, then sooner or later regionals will have 737's, A-320's then 330's 787's, 757's, 767's.......

And the cycle goes on. It ends here.
 
Mike Oxlong said:
Why is a 90 seat CRJ different than a E190?

10 seats? OOOOOOOH SNAP. Mike, if you want to fly larger aircraft, you should go interview again. You almost sound like an RJDC memeber---looking for larger planes and hoping to get your weekends off and not having to interview again. Don't get lazy on us now, ya hear?


Bye Bye--General Lee
 
Unfortunately these aircraft will end up at the regionals. Why would a company want to operate 170 under a regional and 190 under a mainline. The aircraft are practically identical. It makes no sense not to keep them on the same certificate, same training department, and same maintenance.

Think about it. Same thing with CRJ series aircraft.
 

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