Another airline to the DCI portfolio!

[737 Pylt]

AP
Pinnacle to Fly Delta Connection Route
Monday April 30, 10:33 am ET Pinnacle to Fly As Delta Connection Carrier
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Regional airline Pinnacle Airlines Corp. said Monday it agreed to buy and operate 16 small planes as part of the Delta Air Lines Delta Connection program.
Pinnacle did not say how much the planes, Bombardier CRJ-900s, will cost. The company will receive the planes starting in November and begin operating as a Delta Connection carrier in December. The pact with Delta is for 10 years.
Earlier Monday, Delta said it would emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after more than a year-and-a-half.
Pinnacle shares rose 38 cents, or 2 percent, to $17.29 in early trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has ranged from $5.72 to $19.95 in the past year.

737

 

[General Lee]

From a few days ago:

"In yesterday's conference call with the finance houses, management pointed out that the RJ fleet will have zero hull growth through 2010, just exchanges from 40/50 seat to 70/76 seat. Mainline is currently scheduled to receive 15 737-700, 2 737-800, 13 757-200, and 5 777 over the next 3 years with no fleet attrition planned."


Some other DCI airline will lose a bunch of RJs coming up here. (50 seaters) Who will it be?


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Basically what this means for ASAers is that their 50 seat fleet will be shrinking. Most people that I talk to are open about it. They may change in the 50's for 90's but Delta thinks that their costs are too high so they will be taking their aircraft away and giving the 90's to other operators.
On the Skywest note. Expect to see them grow a lot in ATL. Do not expect to see the scope of the ASA/ SKW foot print in the DCI portfolio grow. Delta is aware that if they get too big they will cause major headaches for them down the road. If Delta uses a lot of carriers to achieve its DCI portfolio it will allow them to keep the cost down. That is the reason for Pinnacle getting these 90's.

 

[Tomct]

Basically what this means for ASAers is that their 50 seat fleet will be shrinking. Most people that I talk to are open about it. They may change in the 50's for 90's but Delta thinks that their costs are too high so they will be taking their aircraft away and giving the 90's to other operators.
On the Skywest note. Expect to see them grow a lot in ATL. Do not expect to see the scope of the ASA/ SKW foot print in the DCI portfolio grow. Delta is aware that if they get too big they will cause major headaches for them down the road. If Delta uses a lot of carriers to achieve its DCI portfolio it will allow them to keep the cost down. That is the reason for Pinnacle getting these 90's.

I believe that you are right! Yet ANOTHER SH!T Sandwich for ASA!!! Man, we gotta get out of here....

 

[i'mbatman]

This sort of coincides with CHQ losing the 15 E135's they currently fly for Delta. Those go in Sept 08 and pinacle starts in Dec 07. A little overlap.

 

[dtfl]

Basically what this means for ASAers is that their 50 seat fleet will be shrinking. Most people that I talk to are open about it. They may change in the 50's for 90's but Delta thinks that their costs are too high so they will be taking their aircraft away and giving the 90's to other operators.
On the Skywest note. Expect to see them grow a lot in ATL. Do not expect to see the scope of the ASA/ SKW foot print in the DCI portfolio grow. Delta is aware that if they get too big they will cause major headaches for them down the road. If Delta uses a lot of carriers to achieve its DCI portfolio it will allow them to keep the cost down. That is the reason for Pinnacle getting these 90's.

Well...although there are many more fixes than Rjs..I welcome the change from 50 seaters to 70 seaters. What would I like more? Sched aircraft in a way that MAKES SENSE. I am in mil tng in lovely Little Rock, AR for 3 months, and flew home to VPS this weekend. ALL the flights were oversold. The gate agent told me out of the 6-7 flights a day, 3 are MD88s. In May, when VPS is nothing bout tourists going to the beach, DAL changes the sched to 1 MD88 and 5-6 RJs. ONE?!!?!? They could put 5 MD88s on that sched and fill them.......who in the hell is planning our routes??!!?