New Furloughs 4 Mesaba

[DoinTime]

I think if the Avro goes away and gets replaced by CRjs NWA will suffer some revenue loss and negative public opinion.

Not neccesarily....First class service is getting more sparse by the day and the passenger doesn't always have a choice. How many booking options out of XNA are there for first class service? The strength behind small RJ service is frequency of service and multiple hub options. Passengers will piss and moan about being crammed into a small aircraft but the majority will be back when their next trip comes because the of the schedule options. The entire industry is jam packed with RJ's. If the passenger choses not to fly NW they will have to sit on a CoEx RJ, or a DCI RJ, or an Eagle RJ.

My personal opinion on the Avro's getting parked is that NW is insulating themselves for a strike situation at Mesaba. Take the Avro's out of service before the strike is called and none of the routes formerly served by the Avro can be considered struck work. They can temporarily get by with substitutions from CRJ's and DC-9's until the last phases of contract negotiations are worked out. If a strike occurs the only services lost due to struck work will be Saab routes which will have a much smaller impact on traffic.

As for the 44 converted to 50's.. it can be done, but it requires way too much paperwork and money for NWA to do it.

A few of those "converts" (the first couple 50 to 44) can be converted easily.

Otherwise all recent 44's cannot be done with $$$. We all know NWA will not do that so they are here to stay!

The 44 seat CRJ's that have been delivered CANNOT be converted back to 50 seaters and likewise the 50 seaters that have already been delivered CANNOT be converted to 44 seaters. This is the language that was agreed upon in the LOA for the continuation of the American Eagle codeshare. Once a CRJ has been delivered it CANNOT be converted to any other seating configuration.

The revenue potential of those six seats is upwards of $200,000 per month, per plane. I would seriously doubt NW would let a little paperwork stand in there way of having an extra $90 million in potential annual revenue available ($270 million annually when the deliveries are completed).

 

[CWASaab]

First class XNA passengers have a choice between Mesaba and American. Granted, Eagle serves XNA with more frequency, but AMR does fly in, and provides a First Class cabin.

I chose XNA as an example because I was just there last week and heard a passenger say that w/o the Avro service there would be no incentive to fly NWA. From what I have heard from our passengers there would be a negative impact for NWA, whether that extends beyond opinion to revenue I can only say that based on my dealings with those passengers it will, but that is certainly no guarantee.

Honestly I had not thought about the idea the parking the Avros now was a move to counter struck work issues. Interesting idea, and certainly as good of an explanation as I have heard. The only thing is that based on my understanding, it will be primarily up to Mesaba's MEC along with input from PCL MEC, NWA MEC and ALPA to determine what constitutes struck work and what type of support from PCL and NWA we desire. I would think that tactics like this would be taken into account in that determination. I am not an expert, and perhaps that is not how it works, but I am under that impression.

 

[efiscompmon]

The usual situation is that existing routes, at the time the strike is begun, may be flown but without an increse in frequency or gauge of aircraft.

Example: if it were PCL striking, Mesaba could make the one flight a day MSP to ATW (if you still do it) but not the other three or up-gauge it from a saab to an avro.

This is why there is usually at least one flight to each city and why DAL has put so much effort into spreading DCI around.

 

[Jose Whales]

My deepest sympathy to all furloughed pilots and family!!!

Jose Whales!