Mesa's CRJ 200's not going to China

[Poahi]

Shenzhen Airlines-Mesa Air JV orders 100 ARJ21 regional jets from AVIC I


Source: http://www.quamnet.com/fcgi-bin/news.fpl?par4=20071221185705920388ens&par2=2&par3=1




That's great because there are only three over there now. Will they ever make it State side?

 

[Soverytired]

Shenzhen Airlines-Mesa Air JV orders 100 ARJ21 regional jets from AVIC I


Source: http://www.quamnet.com/fcgi-bin/news.fpl?par4=20071221185705920388ens&par2=2&par3=1




That's great because there are only three over there now. Will they ever make it State side?

The Mesa CRJ's in China were only a short-term measure, as were the captains who went there to fly them on 2 year contracts.

The ultimate aim of that Chinese operation is to have contract captains train Chinese pilots, who would eventually be flying Chinese planes. China has almost NO pilots; Mesa has a great deal of experience running RJ-type airlines with low time pilots. It's actually a pretty good fit.

I don't think this is any great revelation or secret.

JO gets to lease some planes he has no use for to China for a few years, and gets god-knows-what-else under the table as well. It's a pretty smart idea, at least on paper. But as we know . . paper plans and reality rarely converge, especially in the airline biz.

 

[Poahi]

True, and now I hear that the contract has been reduced to one year. They are having trouble staffing the airline. Few captains want to go and Mesa doesn't want to pay for the FO's to upgrade and leave.

We have sims booked now in DEN, SEA, Montreal, CVG, and even MEM.

I also think that JO got a piece of the deal negotiating the engine contract with the Chinese manufacturer.

My question is - - who is going to clean up the mess at Mesa this fall?

 

[rickair7777]

The chinese probably wised up and realized that it would be safer to build their own RJ's from scratch than to operate airplanes which had been subject to years of mesa Mx.