Actually the 170's ARE operated by USAir. It is U's callsign, U's mainline 121 certificate, U's pilots. They only call it by another name so they can have the pilots on another contract and pay them dirtbag wages.
So lets say in the distant future, say 10 years from now (assuming USAir pulls out of the hole they are in) a guy gets hired on the 170, he is a new hire and therefore not a furloughed USair guy, does he have a right to go fly any other equipment at USair? Lets flip it, say UsAir takes ALL their furloughees back then furloughs again, do those pilots automatically go to the top of the E170 list? If the answer to either one of those questions is no then the USAir pilots dropped the ball. Better to have "dirtbag" wages at the mainline AND the ability to bid the 170 in order to keep their jobs or just because they have a wife that makes more than they do and they want the quality of life than to create an independant company to fly the dirtbag jets.
I work for Continental Express. When I was hired in 1998, it was one big happy family. CAL owned Express, we had a flow through agreement that allowed for movement between the companies, Gordon was my CEO and we were even considered one employee group for representational purposes.
NOW- CAL sold Express, there is no Flow thru so CAL pilots lost their furlough protection and Express pilots lost their career enhancement. The CAL and Express pilots are divided and you will probably see a split in the CALALPA MEC and to top it all off the CEO of ExpressJet now wants to buy another airline and disclude us from flying at that airline too.
I'll say this one more time, ALL JET EQUIPMENT NEEDS TO BE FLOWN UNDER ONE SENIORITY LIST, ANYTHING LESS IS A SETUP FOR DISASTER. Whats happening at USAir is less than ONE LIST therefore the PILOTS will get screwed one day. Probably the same day they decide that they arent being paid enough to fly the 170, thats when they will lose all rights to USair mainline.
There will, mark my words, WILL be two seperate seniority lists. (This will allow JB to sell off the E190 and crews if they decide they want too)
Highly doubtful. The reason there is one list over there is because Neeleman didn't think that another airline could provide the level of service that his employees do, plus he would have little control over the crews flying those airplanes if he outsourced meaning if there was some kind of dispute between the regional and their managment, JetBlue would lose out. At least Dave could try to fix the problem if there were some kind of dispute.
Neeleman (SP?) is not stupid. (Nor can you teach an old dog new tricks.) David has made his money by building and selling things. Again, he is not stupid. He won't let go of the JB name anytime soon, but he will be spinning off and selling his own Commuter, I.E. Jet Blue Lite (e-190 commuter operation) He may even end up selling it to US Air after they liquidate most of what is now called US AIR. US Air will sell most of its assets and manuever itself into a position to start over. This time it will be with one type aircraft and it probably will be with JB's E190 serving Jet Blue routes.
So, Usair will soon be Jetblue's regional? Thats a bit of a stretch don't you think. I think Jetblue, Airtran, Southwest and ATA are going to merge into one carrier named Air Bluetrans West and destroy all the other airlines. My theory is about as likly as yours.
As soon as the inherent problems with operating more than one Aircraft really begin affecting the bottom line, David will sell off the Aircraft and crews. Mark my words fellas.
The Boyd company recently went over the "Myth" of one fleet type and their conclusion is that it is simply a myth. Done correctly, an airline could keep its costs as low as SWA with multiple fleet types. They even went as far as to say that SWA would likly realize this in the near future and add a new fleet type. All I know is that the Boyd Company is rarely wrong. So who knows. However I do tend to believe that the single fleet type theory is a little overrated.
Mr HAT, sorry for my lack of airline vocabulary. I am not an airline pilot, never have been, so some of the industry lingo I am still learning. Sorry for the incompetence.
No worries man, there are plenty of other silly terms to screw up. Bidding other equipment within a single company is simply bidding other equipment. A flowthrough is an agreement between a regional airline and a major airline where the pilots of the regional company can "flowthrough" (IE no interview or anything) to the major company. You are in effect getting a new job, at a new company without the hassle of interviewing or anything else. The converse is that the pilots of the major airline usually have a "flowback" meaning that if they get furloughed from THEIR company, they can have a job at the regional company....sometimes at the top or middle of the list of the regional so they may in effect be hired by the regional as a captain or a very senior first officer. The pilots of the regional would be displaced in order to make room for the furloughed major airline pilots.
Only two companies have had flowthrough agreements, Continental Express and American Eagle. The Continental Express flowthrough is expired and no longer in effect. The Eagle one is about to be torn down I believe.
Whats most important for you is to hurry up and get on with whoever has the fastest upgrade times on an aircraft that has a gross weight of 20,000lbs or higher.....preferably a jet.
Sorry for jumping on you, I didn't realize that you wern't in the industry yet. I get tired of seeing seasoned airline pilots calling Embraer Equipment "Regional Jets" especially when the E195 is larger than the smallest 737....it's like they cant get it through their thick skulls that by calling it a regional jet they are actually hurting themselves by bringing their current equipment CLOSER to a regional jet. They also cant understand that if a major airline fly's an Embraer airplane, its actually a VERY good thing and only helps to further the career rather than starting a "dirtbag" company to fly Embraers which only serves to fragment and divide us further therefore degrading the industry. You'll understand my frustration when you get here and see how shortsighted many of the major airline guys actually are.
