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Mesa To End Delta Turboprop Flights At JFK In August
Aviation Daily
By Lori Ransom
Mesa is ending its Dash 8 turboprop service for Delta at New York Kennedy Airport Aug. 21 because of higher-than-anticipated costs of flying the aircraft.
Flights of the 12 37-seat aircraft got off to an unstable start with Mesa having to use smaller 19-seat planes on some of the routes after the flight data recorders on some of the planes didn't monitor the correct 32 parameters. Republic Airways Holdings also flew 37-seat ERJ-135 jets at JFK to help backfill some of the Dash 8s that couldn't start service.
Mesa noted its Dash 8 expenses during the first quarter were $700,000 higher than expected. Operational difficulties in the carrier's United Express operations also deflated operating profits by $4.7 million during the quarter.
Additional special charges spurred a second fiscal quarter loss at Mesa of $24 million, compared with a $5.3 million profit a year ago. Included in those charges was the write-off of a $30 million incentive payment Mesa paid United in 2005 to strike a deal under which 30 incremental 50-seat jets that were exiting Mesa's US Airways network would enter United's service.
Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein told analysts yesterday that Mesa underestimated the expense of that flying and overestimated the completion rate, which means the company won't gain a return on the $30 million payment. He said Mesa opted to take an impairment charge for the payment and write it off.
Irregular Ops
Ornstein said Mesa was in discussions with its partners about the effects of irregular operations. In its United flying, Mesa faced weather and ATC problems, as well as United's slot allocation system, which Mesa said generally favors larger jets when delays occur.
Mesa should get some relief in United's operations later this year. At one point, Ornstein said Mesa was flying into the air traffic-constrained eastern U.S. destinations of Atlanta, Boston, JFK, Newark, LaGuardia and Philadelphia 32 times a day, which represented 40% of its lines of flying. Frequencies have now dropped to 26 times per day and that number should be cut in half by June.
Ornstein said Mesa was disappointed with the 61% load factors posted by its interisland Hawaiian carrier Go, but noted that the low loads were somewhat offset by better-than-expected operational performance. Ornstein said competitive capacity added to its Go markets caused the lower loads.
At the moment, Mesa is opting not to give future earnings projections as a result of "certain components of our United Express fleet going forward," and certain other issues, such as the winding down of Dash 8 operations and the options it is examining for its Air Midwest subsidiary.
I hope the best for all pilots involved.
One little juicy quote in here I put in bold.
Aviation Daily
By Lori Ransom
Mesa is ending its Dash 8 turboprop service for Delta at New York Kennedy Airport Aug. 21 because of higher-than-anticipated costs of flying the aircraft.
Flights of the 12 37-seat aircraft got off to an unstable start with Mesa having to use smaller 19-seat planes on some of the routes after the flight data recorders on some of the planes didn't monitor the correct 32 parameters. Republic Airways Holdings also flew 37-seat ERJ-135 jets at JFK to help backfill some of the Dash 8s that couldn't start service.
Mesa noted its Dash 8 expenses during the first quarter were $700,000 higher than expected. Operational difficulties in the carrier's United Express operations also deflated operating profits by $4.7 million during the quarter.
Additional special charges spurred a second fiscal quarter loss at Mesa of $24 million, compared with a $5.3 million profit a year ago. Included in those charges was the write-off of a $30 million incentive payment Mesa paid United in 2005 to strike a deal under which 30 incremental 50-seat jets that were exiting Mesa's US Airways network would enter United's service.
Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein told analysts yesterday that Mesa underestimated the expense of that flying and overestimated the completion rate, which means the company won't gain a return on the $30 million payment. He said Mesa opted to take an impairment charge for the payment and write it off.
Irregular Ops
Ornstein said Mesa was in discussions with its partners about the effects of irregular operations. In its United flying, Mesa faced weather and ATC problems, as well as United's slot allocation system, which Mesa said generally favors larger jets when delays occur.
Mesa should get some relief in United's operations later this year. At one point, Ornstein said Mesa was flying into the air traffic-constrained eastern U.S. destinations of Atlanta, Boston, JFK, Newark, LaGuardia and Philadelphia 32 times a day, which represented 40% of its lines of flying. Frequencies have now dropped to 26 times per day and that number should be cut in half by June.
Ornstein said Mesa was disappointed with the 61% load factors posted by its interisland Hawaiian carrier Go, but noted that the low loads were somewhat offset by better-than-expected operational performance. Ornstein said competitive capacity added to its Go markets caused the lower loads.
At the moment, Mesa is opting not to give future earnings projections as a result of "certain components of our United Express fleet going forward," and certain other issues, such as the winding down of Dash 8 operations and the options it is examining for its Air Midwest subsidiary.
I hope the best for all pilots involved.
One little juicy quote in here I put in bold.
