"MESA In Cedar City" I give them a month!

[amcnd]

Let's see how long it takes Cedar to see they made a big mistake!

CEDAR CITY, Utah (AP) -- Mesa Airlines has released its new fares and flight schedules, two months after it was awarded Cedar City's essential air service contract by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"It's a little more than they originally proposed, but it's still considerably cheaper than what the fares are now," said Steve Farmer, manager of Cedar City Regional Airport in southern Utah. "As a matter of fact, I think they've done the best they can."
The Phoenix-based airline began selling tickets at the new rate on Sunday.
Mesa will offer an introductory one-way fare of $49 on tickets purchased by April 8 for travel between May 7 -- the first day of scheduled service -- and May 31. That rate will be good for flights to Salt Lake City or Las Vegas.
"We were going for shock value, and I'm pretty sure this will shock people," Jeffrey Hartz, an analyst for Mesa Air Group, told The Spectrum of St. George. "I hope people will say, 'I'm going to give Mesa Airlines and America West Express a chance to fly us."'
Mesa's cheapest round-trip ticket to Salt Lake City will be $158, $20 less than SkyWest's best advertised price, Farmer said. SkyWest has served Cedar City for the past 31 years.
Mesa's lowest round-trip price from Cedar City to Las Vegas will be $128.
"I'll fly on Mesa," said former Cedar City Councilman Raymond Green after collecting his baggage at the airport on Saturday. "I think we need to give Mesa a good chance to show what they can do. We need to have the community behind them. I think they've done the best they can to accommodate us, and that's a good thing."
Business travelers will enjoy the greatest savings with Mesa. The airline's cheapest round-trip walkup ticket to Salt Lake City will sell for $198; SkyWest's lowest price is $276, Farmer said.
Mesa's best advertised price for a Las Vegas walkup ticket will be $168.
"We feel that Cedar City will become an integral part of our America West Express system," said Mickey Bowman, Mesa's vice president of planning.
Mesa will offer two flights to Salt Lake City on Monday through Friday, one flight on Sunday but no Saturday service. The airline will fly daily to and from Las Vegas.
"With the number of flights offered, I don't know how we would do it any better," Farmer said. "Obviously my goal is to prove to them that the planes will be full and that we need more flights." (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

 

[propsarebest]

I think we will be seeing YV in Cedar City for a while. Their bid for the EAS contract was 1/2 of what SKW bid. It's simple math.

 

[Captain Morgan]

I'm not really worried about it. I mean really think about it! What do dirt poor people care what get's them to Vegas to spend all the welfare money quicker. They live in trailer parks, so what's a piece of sh** Mesa plane to them? The pilot's probably look the same as the local garbage men that take out their stinking baby crap diapers and Faygo cans.

 

[Going2Baja]

Cedar overnights were the best....walk to the pizza joint in the snow, put the brew you brought on the flight in a snow bank and pick it back up for the walk back to the hotel after dinner....Very fun times!!

Baja.

BTW - Is the town still "dry?"

 

[othello]

So is Mesa replacing SkyWest or compeating against them in Cedar City?

I have been in and out of there a few times when St George is over sold and SkyWest never seems to get much of a load. I went donwn to visit a friend last spring and myself (a jumpseater) and the flight attendant were the only ones in the cabin. Hard to make money like that.

 

[skyhogg]

CDC is an Essential Air Service contract. Skywest has won this contract and provided this service for over 30 years (don't know how long it's been EAS).

The last time around, Mesa threw thier bid into the ring to provide the EAS to LAS and PHX. The underbid Skywest by around $500K (1900 vs E-120).

The city of Cedar City wasn't happy with the decision by the federal government to award the contract to Mesa instead of Skywest. Mesa responded by adding flights to SLC to the service.

Those who think this will be short lived might want to consider a few things. The EAS contract is awarded by the Feds. It's pretty much based on one thing...price. If Skywest had really wanted the contract, they would'nt have bid so much higher than Mesa.

The city of CDC can cry and complain all they want. It's not up to them. Mesa is there to stay for the forseeable future. Only if and when CDC can prove to the Feds that the service is so bad as to be unreliable can they ask the service to be reconsidered...that will take awhile. And why would they want to? Mesa's ticket prices announced this week are far lower than Skywest's and that seems to be the only thing that anyone cares about anymore...

 

[414Flyer]

In the event of a Scientology/LDS merger, Mesa can offer service Cedar City direct to Kolob using XENUs rocket powered DC-8s.

 

[pipers]

My two cents.........

We sealed our fate with places like CDC when we ditched the metro years ago.....

of course the emb120 is not going to compete with the 1900's when i price is the biggest factor. some of the only empty flights i ever flew in the emb were into and out of CDC........

maybe mesa will start a SUN service while there in slc with the 1900.....hope not.