350DRIVER said:
Good for Mesa, they surely don't need a company who's future is defintely up in the air, has furloughed guys on the street, lost routes, and finally had to go "independant" cause they were pretty much fuc$ed after they lost the routes.,.. ACA is nothing more than a horrible gamble (both short and long term) , just happy Mesa did not touch a "crashing damaged item." Obviously you can see the company who is continuing to hire (pilots too
), purchase new equipment, prosper, succeed, expand route structure, aquire other companies (Midway), etc, etc, etc. It would have sucked to have seen Mesa try and bail these guys out since in reality ACA probably could have brought Mesa right down the gutt(a) with em.
There is a God,
3 5 0
350,
ACA did not "lose" the routes. ACA had a firm 10 year deal with United to fly at least 122 CRJ's as United Express. When United went into Chapter 11, it elected to subvert the contracts with all United Express carriers by submitting all three of them (ACA, AWAC, Skywest) to a competitive bid process with a variety of other carriers, including Chatauqua, Mesa Air Group, Trans States and others. When ACA management evaluated the terms that United was insisting on, they simply said THANKS, BUT NO THANKS. The deal being offered by United involved too much exposure to long term risk and diminishing margins that were deemed unacceptable to ACA management and the company's board of directors. Therefore they elected to simply refuse every offer that United made and will continue to do so until UAL emerges from bankruptcy and cancels the contract with ACA.
ACA has $300,000,000 cash, one of the best balance sheets in the industry, 87 CRJ's flying for the United Express operation, and extensive infrastructure in place in Dulles and several outstations. Ornstein has publicly stated on several occassions that his biggest challenge is financing new aircraft and keeping pace with the scheduled growth. It does not take a genius to determine Ornstein's true motivation in launching this unsolicited bid for ACA.
Will ACA ultimately be successful as Independence Air? I don't know; neither do you. Only time will tell. I do think that the business plan is solid, Dulles is in need of a low cost/high frequency option, the infrastructure is in place, and the cost structure will be competitive once the A319/A320 series is brought into the mix to offset the higher CASM of the CRJ. Most importantly, the entire employee group is highly motivated and 110% behind the effort.
Mesa, on the other hand has several negative things "going for it". It is aligned with partners that are on shaky financial ground (put mildly), accepts deals with margins that are too slim for favorable financing terms, and is heavily leveraged. My personal opinion is that your CEO (if you work for Mesa) is taking you down a very self destructive path in the name of ego and "cashing in" on the opportune moment. I think history will reveal Mesa as one of those carriers that tries to expand too aggressively and ultimately implodes. I certainly do not wish for my fellow pilots to be out on the street. On the other hand, I feel that our profession would be much better off without the downward pressure that Mesa creates. That's a bit callous, I know, but your remarks concerning ACA were no less offensive to this former ACA pilot. Tit for tat, as they say.
At any rate, that's enough fun for tonight.
