Rumor Mill: Skywest buying Eagle

[cbrown1]

Direct for the mouth of the former Expressjet MEC chair to me "Jerry told us if we force the issue he will drop the deal and buy us in bankruptcy, airplanes no pilots."

Now that the deal is done, what is stopping them from bringing in the nmb to make a ruling Ala republic/frontier?

 

[Jon Rivoli]

You're missing my point. OO needs the planes in house first so that if my scenario were to play out, they'd be ready. They can't just take planes they have no idea how to fly.

Not missing the point. Q400's and further displacing Horizon are two separate issues. We can do all the flying Alaska wants us to do with CRJ's, it is United that wants Q400's.

Also, the jets were going OUT of the system, so they couldn't play QX against another carrier via RFP.

Correct, Alaska has never contracted out flying before, but in building a relationship with Skyw they were impressed enough to give it a shot. They are only interested in a quality product (of which Horizon is the finest) and not the low bidder. They were done with CRJ's, until they got to know SkyWest during negotiations over Horizons 700's.

 

[Fubijaakr]

I'll tell you what they are concerned about...the Gold reports of crappy service on Alaska painted/owned CRJs operated by SKW crews.

 

[fo.mafia.4 life]

Now that the deal is done, what is stopping them from bringing in the nmb to make a ruling Ala republic/frontier?

I don't know. Thats above my pay grade. I don't know how anyof this works really. Just repeating what I was told.

 

[dojetdriver]

I hardly think they leveraged much on us. They got us for a song. I think our assets alone(hard assets plus cash in the bank) were worth more than what they paid for us.

True, but it's not like XJT has that many assets to begin with. Never mind the "thanks for helping us punk ExpressJet" check that Larry "the horse tooth" Kellner wrote them the first time.

Does Jerry necessarily need to Merge Eagle with ASA/XJET for a purchase to happen? If not, he could just keep them separate.

As mentioned, probably couldn't do that. The 2 way merge just between XJT and ASA is going to take a while from the flight ops side. I couldn't imagine how much more ugly it would get with Eagle's expensive contract. Although Jerry could make one hell of a case to the shareholders of the billions of dollars save in "synergies" by combining the three groups. Only to later turn around and drop the fear grenade that there's no way they get a leading JCBA because it's too tough of a market to negotiating an industry leading pilot contract.

I hate to say it, but Horizon is in Jerry's sights. Problem is that there are expensive pilots attached to the airframes Allegheny-Mohawk style. As soon as he can separate the airframes from the pilots, the deal will be done.
SKYW is mean, just plain mean.
PBR

As Boiler mentioned, not likely. McCaskill would get in the way.

ALPA would fight for single list since It'd all be under the same parent company.

That ship sailed the SECOND and successful time that Inc. bought XJT. The first time it was a major sticking point. There were solutions offered by the XJT MEC on a pilot list integration, SKW wanted NO part of it.

 

[paid4training]

Direct for the mouth of the former Expressjet MEC chair to me "Jerry told us if we force the issue he will drop the deal and buy us in bankruptcy, airplanes no pilots."

How is that possible when CAL, United or whoever they are now actually owns the aircraft? And to staff those aircraft with qualified pilots would be very difficult for a company to do over nite?

 

[dojetdriver]

How is that possible when CAL, United or whoever they are now actually owns the aircraft? And to staff those aircraft with qualified pilots would be very difficult for a company to do over nite?

CAL/Yo doesn't own the 145s, they lease them, then sublease to XJT. I'm pretty sure CAL still holds the leases on the 135's as well, and XJT has, or at least had first right of refusal on them before CAL decided to sub lease to somebody else. Many of them have gone into service for with CHQ.

When the first buyout attempt was going on, SkyWest was in the process of getting an Embraer training program up and running. Various flightops and training center people were tasked with getting it going, only to have it get completely dropped when the buyout didn't go through and Jerry cashed that big ol' check he got for playing.

So yes, the staffing of the airframes would have been an issue, but only for the CA's seat. But bear in mind, if SKW had been successful on the first buyout, they were going to drop all XJT pilots, THEN give them them the option to be interviewed/hired at the bottom of the list. Isn't that nice and kind of them? Remember, that was just before the McCaskill Bond was passed, so they could have done it.

But Jerry is smart, there's nothing that said he wouldn't do something along the lines of a phase out of XJT as he got SKW pilots trained. In other words, train say 32 SKW CA's a month, then drop 32 XJT's CA's to FO, then dump 32 XJT FO's on the street. Or some variation of, etc. In other words, something that wouldn't put him in a staffing pickle with his new best friends, Larry "the horsetooth" Kellner and Jeffrey "J-LO" Smisek

Direct for the mouth of the former Expressjet MEC chair to me "Jerry told us if we force the issue he will drop the deal and buy us in bankruptcy, airplanes no pilots."

When you mention the "former chair", it can get a little confusing as during the first buyout, as mentioned, that was a highly likely scenario. We got a new chair before the buyout happened. So we've had TWO former chairs since then. Only to have the FIRST former chair become the MEC chair, AGAIN, but that was only on a temporary basis. And now we've a completely new chair. Confused yet? During the second buyout, not a likely scenario. Again, McCaskill being the governing legislation.

Unless the bankruptcy was Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings, I'm pretty sure XJT's fragmentation language would have something to say about that.

True. But on the second go of the buyout, the MEC folded like Superman on laundry day. During the first go, the MEC pressed/fought the scope battle with INC, as well as alternative solutions. INC wanted NO part of that at all.

One of the solutions would have entailed something like the Russians dealt with after VE, and the U.S. and Russians were intermixing in the process of sorting through the rubble that was now Berlin. The Russians (Stalin) didn't want any of his soldiers having any exposure at all with the U.S. troops. Didn't want their views and mindset that had been instilled since they were children to get tainted by those evil Americans and their ways. If you need a clarification on who was the Russians and who was the U.S. in the analogy, feel free to PM. But you're a sharp dude, I'm sure you can understand, as well as get the humor in it.

 

[wms]

True, but it's not like XJT has that many assets to begin with. Never mind the "thanks for helping us punk ExpressJet" check that Larry "the horse tooth" Kellner wrote them the first time.



As mentioned, probably couldn't do that. The 2 way merge just between XJT and ASA is going to take a while from the flight ops side. I couldn't imagine how much more ugly it would get with Eagle's expensive contract. Although Jerry could make one hell of a case to the shareholders of the billions of dollars save in "synergies" by combining the three groups. Only to later turn around and drop the fear grenade that there's no way they get a leading JCBA because it's too tough of a market to negotiating an industry leading pilot contract.



As Boiler mentioned, not likely. McCaskill would get in the way.



That ship sailed the SECOND and successful time that Inc. bought XJT. The first time it was a major sticking point. There were solutions offered by the XJT MEC on a pilot list integration, SKW wanted NO part of it.

That's the exact point I was making to the person I was replying to, if you read further back.

 

[dojetdriver]

That's the exact point I was making to the person I was replying to, if you read further back.

The part of the aircraft leases?
The part on SkyWest spooling up an ERJ program?
The part about how McCaskill didn't exist back then and SKW wanted to fire ALL XJT pilot and hire them at the bottom?
The part about the XJT MEC chair?
The integration the that the former MEC chair offered to SKW?
Or the joke about the U.S. and Russian interaction after VE day/