Republic

[Brother Francis]

Louisville woos Republic Airline

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By Chris Poynter
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal

New regional jet carrier would bring about 300 jobs to the area. The airline plans flights to and from major airlines' hub airports.
Louisville is one of several cities competing for the corporate and maintenance headquarters of Republic Airline, a new regional jet carrier that plans flights to and from major airlines' hub airports.

State economic development officials, along with the Regional Airport Authority board, have been secretly negotiating with the company for several months, discussing financial incentives in an attempt to lure the business to Louisville.

Republic Airline would be a subsidiary of Indianapolisbased Republic Airways, which also operates Chautauqua Airlines. Chautauqua provides service from smaller cities into hubs operated by American and Delta airlines, among others.

Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson, in an interview with The Courier-Journal, yesterday declined to name the airline, but said the carrier would bring about 300 ''good paying'' jobs to the city -- and eventually could lead to expanded flights between Louisville and other cities.

''Right now it's in the hands of the state,'' Abramson said.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development does not comment on potential deals, spokeswoman Terri Bradshaw said.

The cabinet's finance authority board, which must approve incentives the state offers to companies, will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Frankfort. The agenda is not made public until the meeting starts, Bradshaw said, because of the sensitivity of economic development deals.

A spokesman for Republic Airways Holdings, the parent company of Republic Airline, declined to comment yesterday.

Regional jets -- which usually seat 50 to 70 people -- are increasingly replacing major jets, especially in small and medium-sized cities such as Louisville, according to the Regional Airline Association in Washington D.C.

Last November, for example, US Airways pulled its largest jets out of Louisville, replacing them with regional jets and turboprop aircraft.

David Castelveter, spokesman for the Arlington, Va., airline, said at the time that economic reasons led to the phasing out of the Boeing 737-300s that US Airways used on its Louisville flights to Charlotte and Pittsburgh. (Other destinations from Louisville already are served by the smaller aircraft.)

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the airline retired many of its larger planes as passenger loads dropped, Castelveter said.

Debby McElroy of the Regional Airline Association said 15 companies nationwide operate regional jets. McElroy said she is aware of Republic starting another airline but said she didn't know which cities it was considering as a headquarters.

J. Michael Brown, airport board chairman, said Louisville is among ''three or four cities'' vying to become the airline's headquarters and maintenance base. He didn't know what other cities were in the running.

Abramson said he did know which cities were courting the airline, but he declined to name them.

He said the potential new regional airline would be headquartered at Louisville International, with planes flying to there from other cities for maintenance.

Abramson said he expects that having the corporate and maintenance headquarters here would lead to increased passenger flights -- both to cities that Louisville currently serves and perhaps others that it doesn't.

''It's a win-win,'' he said.

The jobs created by the airline would be a mix of white-collar corporate positions and blue-collar maintenance workers, the mayor said.

Abramson said he was briefed about the development last November, as part of his merger transition. As mayor, he now sits on the airport authority board and attended the January meeting, where the board discussed the issue behind closed doors.

Airport General Manager Jim DeLong declined to comment yesterday.

Brown said he couldn't comment in depth about the negotiations because they are being handled by the state.

The state's involvement is vital to landing any airline headquarters, Brown said, because the state -- and not the airport itself -- can offer financial incentives, such as tax breaks.

As part of its ongoing terminal renovation, the airport is spending $7.5 million to add six gates for regional jets.

Brown said they are being added because more airlines are relying on smaller regional jets to shuttle passengers to major hubs. He also noted that having the gates in place could help attract a regional airline company.

People who currently fly regional jets to and from Louisville have to step out of the terminal to board the planes.

 

[Brother Francis]

It's another Freedom

There is an agreement between USAirways and Republic, which has received approval from the Bankruptcy Judge, to put 25 RJs with Republic with options for 25 70 place RJs. This deal is with Republic not Chautauqua, so [CHQ pilots] have no legal recourse to prevent this from occurring. All of these RJs will be flown by furloughed USAirways pilots. The company's position is they don't want the jets for jobs anymore since [CHQ pilots] turned it down and it is not open to discussion.

 

[liljetdriver]

son of freedom

Republic has been created under the umbrella of Wexford Holdings for the purpose of circumventing scope at Chautauqua Airlines. Pilots at CHQ operate under an agreement between the company and IBT (Teamsters) local 747. This agreement prohibits establishing or operating an alter-ego airline. The pilots rejected ALPA proposal LOA#84 reguarding jets for jobs. This was done to preserve the integrity of senority as the sole agent for determining furlough protection, pay, position, base location etc. LOA#84 would have given pilots from the "affected pilots list" super-senority allowing them to bypass CHQ pilots in all of these instances. CHQ pilots voted to force the company to grow the company through legitimate means that adhear to the negotiated contract. In the same strain as Mesa-Freedom, CHQ-Republic has been created to invalidate that agreement.

As crappy as the contracts are at some regional airlines, we must force managment to operate within these imposed conditions at the very least. Otherwise we have gained nothing in the last 5-10 years. Put aside your feelings for CHQ, Mesa, Eagle, Comair or any other regional carrier for a moment. Put aside the bickering of whose flying belongs to who. These are issues of seperate companies competing for growth in a free market. The new call to arms is those same companies forming wholly-owned subsidiaries that compete directly with their own pilot groups. Freedom and Republic are the first of what will become a new cancer in the industry.

Who thinks it is a coincidence both of these companies have been engaged in protracted contract negotiations? When is your contract up? When you ask for better pay and work rules what is to stop your company from saying "no thanks, we are creating Freepublic USA airlines and all new and possibly your current flying will go to this group". Look up whip-saw in the dictionary and you will see an Eagle f/o standing in line at a soup kitchen. Ask an Eagle pilot how important it is to keep wholly-owned subsidiaries from forming and competing with each other.

The vast majority of pilots on this and many other boards realized the dangers of Freedom Airlines. They voiced their concerns loud enough for potential employees to understand the ramifications of accepting a job there. The damage to ones future in the business was clearly established. Sound the horn, round two has begun. We need to denounce Republic just as loudly! I have little hope to believe ALPA will take the same stance against Republic since CHQ is aligned with the Teamsters, but we will see. It may be up to us to spread the word that this type of corporate shenanigans will no longer be tolerated. Pilots at the major airlines where unsuccessful in stoping the growth of regional airlines mostly because the pilots did not recognize the damage that would be done once this "RJ" flying was given away. It was a small piece of the pie and who wants to fly an RJ anyhow. As long as mainline was growing, let this feed continue to grow as well. Times have changed and new priorities abound. We are going to have to fight to preserve the established regional airlines or we are going to have D, E and F scale operators paying captains $13/hr with f/o paying $25,000 to build time.

 

[Beantown]

liljetdriver, Awesome post. I hope all the airline pilots or someday airline pilots on this board read it and learn from it. I just hope the fact the CHQ is not ALPA does not cause this to slip under the radar. -Bean

BTW, It looks like if Mesa passes there TA, they will have had to give up a lot in pay and work rules increases to get the scope to crush Freedumb. A high price to pay. Probably what JO wanted all along. Total B.S!!!

 

[Brother Francis]

Beantown said:

"I just hope the fact the CHQ is not ALPA does not cause this to slip under the radar. -Bean"

Thank you. We are trying not to let that happen. Republic is a clone of Freedom and the fact that CHQ is not ALPA does nothing to mitigate the blatancy of the tactics on the part of the company.

This directly affects only CHQ right here and now, but if allowed to succeed, it sets a precedent that will plague all pilot groups for years to come unless it is nipped in the bud. This is no different from, indeed it is identical to, the situation with MAG and Freedom and is deserving of the same level of outrage regardless of which union represents the pilots.

 

[ALPO]

Let's make this simple;

Mesa Holdings = Wexford Holdings

Freedom Airlines = Republic Airlines

Any pilot flying for Rebublic Airlines will be no different then a Freedumb Pilot. Chautauqua Pilots are faced with the same fight the Mesa pilots just went through!! I hope ALPA understands this!!!

 

[lear24]

I'd love to get into it and point out that you guys at CHQ see how it is to be undercut now, but I will leave it at that, it's messed up times and everyone is getting stuck with something.

I must applaud you guys for shooting down jets for jobs. Nice work, and I hope you all hold to it now that your crumby management is putting the screws to you like Mesa did to their pilots. Stick to your guns and fight the good fight, guys!

 

[Patriot328]

Repeat after me..

It's all about the scope.... It's all about the scope....



When ACA Holdings started up ACJet, it wasn't even an issue who was going to fly the planes. Without scope, the rest of your contract is worthless.


Patriot

 

[Brother Francis]

AIN Online

Regionals Update by Gregory Polek

PAST ISSUES REGIONAL UPDATE 2003
PAST ISSUES REGIONAL UPDATE 2002
PAST ISSUES REGIONAL UPDATE 2001

Judge Gives Green Light to US Airways-Republic Plan
Federal bankruptcy court judge Stephen Mitchell has approved US Airways’ plan to enter into a new operating agreement with Indianapolis-based Republic Airways that calls for the introduction of another 32 regional jets into the US Airways Express system. The ruling gives Republic the catalyst it needs to launch a new nonunionized operating unit separate from its Chautauqua Airlines subsidiary, established specifically to fly the new batch of jets.

Although an airline spokesman declined to comment on any plans for a new operating unit, a spokesman for the local US Airways chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association confirmed that Republic management planned to start the new operation some time during this year’s “second or third quarter.” The move bears a conspicuously close resemblance to Mesa Air Group’s plans for its own nonunion operating unit called Freedom Airlines. Both Mesa’s and Chautauqua’s pilot groups voted not to accept the controversial “Jets for Jobs” provision in US Airways’ collective-bargaining agreement with ALPA, developments that essentially blocked the affiliates from adding more regional jets to their US Airways Express fleets.

Jets for Jobs requires that the airlines staff at least half of their new RJ positions with furloughed US Airways pilots. Both Republic and Freedom could potentially participate in Jets for Jobs with their nonunionized units, allowing them to continue to expand their US Airways Express fleets. ALPA, however, has filed suit against Mesa in an attempt to block Freedom Airlines from opening. An ALPA spokesman added that the union does not condone Republic’s plan, despite the jobs it could produce for US Airways pilots. The Teamsters–the union that represents Chautauqua’s pilots–at press time had yet to publicly air its position on the matter.