Dogg,
To answer your original question I get the feeling F9 is very happy with the job Horizon has been doing. From the first day all we have heard is what a great operation we run and how of an improvement we have been over the former express carrier. Our pilots treat their pilots well and vice versa. I frequently hear when jumpseating how happy they are with our services. Horizon is far ahead of F9 in terms of lots of technology and I think F9 is impressed with our operation and our low vis program and have tried to take a few pages from our playbook.
Starting Jan 1 at our 1 year aniversary our compensation is directy tied to our performance. If we meet or exceed our goals and if we beat F9 Mainline stats for reliability and on time (which is always the case though we only have 9 aircraft to worry about) we get paid even more. (conversely if we don't meet the stats we pay a penalty)
From a company memo....
A year of achievements
“In a word, the first year was outstanding,” Naab said. “We couldn’t be happier with the team out here. Every employee and leader really owns his or her job, and they’re all very aware of our goals. From mechanics to flight attendants to pilots, they’re all very tuned in and really making it happen, and our stats reflect that.”
For the full year of 2004, Frontier JetExpress boasted a Horizon-controllable on-time performance of 94.6 percent (the goal is 92 percent) and Horizon-controllable schedule reliability of 98.8 percent (the goal is 98 percent).
These enviable stats are causing a bit of a friendly rivalry in Denver.
“I’ve been invited to the weekly ops meetings with [Frontier Airlines COO] Sean Menke and the Frontier leadership team,” Naab said. “At the very first one, they showed their stats, and then ours, and the question was asked: ‘How do you do it?’ My answer was that our Horizon team is very good, and we have a great partnership with the Frontier folks who help us on a daily basis.”
If our feed makes F9 money, who knows. The loads seem to be fairly good. There are no rumors of additional aircraft but I'm sure if the numbers folks deem it worthy then you will see more CRJ's with animals on the tail. If not we will all be going back to the rainy northwest.
Cheers