More signs the ATR is going away.

[Cpt Oveur]

System Chief Pilot says that after March, no new hires going to the ATR. All f/o's who do not have a class date for the jet will remain on airplane until August of this year. The effective dates are worthless.

I'd say this, along with the program manager going through jet training, and all the other rumors are sure signs that no new ATRs are going to ASA.

 

[ParrotheadGTI]

interesting..

 

[79%N1]

And hello to Colgon air or more Pinnacle while ASA continues to shrink in it's one and only hub for it's one and only code-share partner. Good times......

 

[John Pennekamp]

System Chief Pilot says that after March, no new hires going to the ATR. All f/o's who do not have a class date for the jet will remain on airplane until August of this year. The effective dates are worthless.

I'd say this, along with the program manager going through jet training, and all the other rumors are sure signs that no new ATRs are going to ASA.

Conversely, I was at FSI all week for recurrent and checkride, and the new rumor among the IPs is that YUL and the mechanics have not gotten their "marching orders" to actually start prepping the ATRs for return to lessor. Apparently that would have to be scheduled already for the ones slated to leave in July/August.

It seems that Delta "suddenly" realized that they will have to either abandon the ATR routes, or transfer these low yield routes to gas guzzling RJs. And HHH is impossible. They claim Delta is waffling now on whether they actually want all of them gone by the end of the year. Most likely, a few will remain through Spring next year, most likely 640-643 because these are the ones owned by Delta. Meanwhile, Delta will get serious about finding a turboprop replacement.

Again, this is a training department rumor, so take it FWIW, but up until now, all of the IPs and even Jim/Woody have been saying they're definitely gone.

 

[777forever]

I just finished IOE Friday and found out from a friend that we've been awarded the 700. Final. No prelim or nothing. That was a surprise.

 

[~~~^~~~]

You know, this was predicted in the Mayan calendar to happen in 2012.

Can we sign up for the retirement flight anywhere?

I want to go back to the fwd cargo bin and see the Tasmanian Devil pushing the Lawnmower one last time.

Of course these days it might be ReRun driving a CAT Lexion 590R Combine.

http://www.toytractortimes.com/october05/lexion.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuEpouRT7bk

 

[777forever]

And hello to Colgon air or more Pinnacle while ASA continues to shrink in it's one and only hub for it's one and only code-share partner. Good times......

Right...you haven't heard of the 80% contract clause we have in ATL have you? If Colgan expands to anywhere it'll be Houston, not ATL. The ATRs will have to be replaced. More 700s or new 900s coming soon....

 

[Cpt Oveur]

Right...you haven't heard of the 80% contract clause we have in ATL have you? If Colgan expands to anywhere it'll be Houston, not ATL. The ATRs will have to be replaced. More 700s or new 900s coming soon....

Right, but have you read the 80% clause? It doesn't have to be an ASA tail within the 80%. SKywest can fulfill ASA's contractual obligations. ASA can loose ATRs and 50's and Skywest can fly the 90's. As long as they don't transfer more than 4 airfarmes in a rolling 12 month period, ASA can be shrunk down.

 

[79%N1]

80% if we meet performance critereon......which we are nowhere close to actually making. (Ok, maybe close)

I hope you are right, but there also is some confusion over whether it is ASA or Skywest, Inc.

I find it interesting also, that ASA has one hub, ATL, and we fly 850 flights daily into or out of the worlds busiest airport - but Delta penalizes us for performance when they board the flights, fuel and cater the planes, load the bags, etc. This is competition with Pinnacle, Skywest, Republic and Freedom, who operate a mere fraction of that.

Anyway, I still think Delta will RFP any new flying to replace ATR's, and ASA has zero chance of winning that......which I find also interesting, considering all of the 'great things' that were heading our way when the new contract was signed. And, we didn't get squat! In fact, the leadership has said many times lately that we have nothing on the horizon.

 

[Cpt Oveur]

80% if we meet performance critereon......which we are nowhere close to actually making. (Ok, maybe close)

I hope you are right, but there also is some confusion over whether it is ASA or Skywest, Inc.

I find it interesting also, that ASA has one hub, ATL, and we fly 850 flights daily into or out of the worlds busiest airport - but Delta penalizes us for performance when they board the flights, fuel and cater the planes, load the bags, etc. This is competition with Pinnacle, Skywest, Republic and Freedom, who operate a mere fraction of that.

Anyway, I still think Delta will RFP any new flying to replace ATR's, and ASA has zero chance of winning that......which I find also interesting, considering all of the 'great things' that were heading our way when the new contract was signed. And, we didn't get squat! In fact, the leadership has said many times lately that we have nothing on the horizon.

First off, Delta does get some of those penalties. All baggage penalties go to Delta now, since they are the sole contractor for it. CVG is technically counted as a hub for us, the 850 flights are not all tied to ATL. We actually are meeting most of the goals for performance. Most of it is tied to completion factor, the rest is on-time. ASA's numbers are climbing from what they were this past summer.

What did you really expectr though, honestly? During negotiations, ASA had much worse on-time numbers. Who's going to invest in that? Simply having a contract isn't going to invite new growth. The best job security is to be competitive. If ASA can achieve higher performance numbers (on time, completion, D-0, baggage, etc) than I think companies are going to want to go after ASA. Otherwise, if you were an airline exec, why would you pick ASA?