Screws are put to Mesaba AGAIN

[AvroJockey]

Eliminate 2-3 RJ frequencies, and you have enough passengers for a DC-9 flight, which even with the higher cost of fuel, has a CASM half of what an RJ flight costs.

Agreed that CASM is far less, however, in most markets of a network system schedule frequency plays a very important roll in revenue. For example, if one were to replace 2 full CRJs with 1 DC9 between two cities, they would be lucky to fill half the seats in the DC9. This is Microeconomics 101; if a store is open from 0800 to 2000 its revenue could be twice that of a store that is open 0800 to 1700.

Regarding your second point...it is NWA MECs policy to protect scope, not the pension, as the number one priority. To that end, securing NWA jobs through the operation of 55 seat aircraft and up is on the table, even with reduced pay rates.

Thank God!
Even though XJ is a great regional to fly for, I still look forward to flying at mainline, regardless of aircraft type (and probably lack of a DB plan).

 

[Redmeat]

This is Microeconomics 101; if a store is open from 0800 to 2000 its revenue could be twice that of a store that is open 0800 to 1700.

OK Steve Forbes.

The reason for the 100% increase from 17:00 to 20:00 is that people get off work at 17:00. Last I checked most people don't do their "nine to fiver" job then go to the airport to go on a trip. People will adjust their travel schedule to conform to available flight schedules.

 

[Jimdandy]

keep dreaming redmeat if there isn't flight avaliable they will pay to go on someone else. If you logic made any sense we would only have 747 out there flying. 1 747 per a week into oh say thief river falls.

Your a moron as always redmeat

 

[Redmeat]

keep dreaming redmeat if there isn't flight avaliable they will pay to go on someone else. If you logic made any sense we would only have 747 out there flying. 1 747 per a week into oh say thief river falls.

Your a moron as always redmeat

Yeah I'm the moron. Jim, ALL of the 74's are FULL. If a person lives in LNK or LSE (places you fly) how is one to "go on someone else" to catch a ride to DTW thru to Narita or Osaka?

You are probably on a long layover (hopefully) and judging from your spelling and your grammar, you are in need of a nap.

Goodnight.

 

[Jimdandy]

Redmeat your hillarious you still didn't get my point. Anyway your right i'm tired as he11.

Suffice it to say this sucks and i hope you don't lose your job just like I hope I don't lose my job.

Take care and sleep well.

 

[U of I Tweak]

OK Steve Forbes.

The reason for the 100% increase from 17:00 to 20:00 is that people get off work at 17:00. Last I checked most people don't do their "nine to fiver" job then go to the airport to go on a trip. People will adjust their travel schedule to conform to available flight schedules.

Except when they can move one ticket counter down and leave on any of 10 flights on Eagle to ORD and make a connection.

Another point is that each one of our departures coinsides with a bank of flights out of DTW. If you limit all of your feeder routes to once a day, then you have feeds to only one bank. And because everyone arrives at the same general time...all of your mainline connection flights are oversold. To compound the problem, the international flights leave at different times depending on destination. All of the Asian flights leave in the 2-5 range. The European destinations leave in the later evenings. If you limit all of the spokes to one DC-9, then you limit the passengers choices when it comes to layover times. Do you only have a morning departure for the people who need to be someplace by midday? What about all the international passengers? Now they have to wait hours for a connection. Okay, so only an afternoon flight...no asian connections (and trust me we have a lot of them here in CMI). As to the people who needed to be somewhere early, they've chosen another airline. How about a flight in the evening only? Great for those traveling to Europe. Except when weather is bad, the plane is groundstopped and no one will make their connections. Now they either have to fund their own night in DTW (hotels are not provided for a wx cancellation) or they have to wait a full 24 hours to go; they have no chance at catching the next morning's flight to DTW and perhaps catching an earlier connection. Also, when a flight cancels, it's 24 hours before another arrives. With multiple flights, you can spread the rebookings across several planes, if you only have one flight....well just hope it's not full.

You can't simply replace 3 Saabs or 3 CRJs or something a day with one DC-9 or Airbus and expect the same number or passengers. It's as simple as "people will adjust their schedules." Mainline needs the feed that the regionals provide. A Saab has a higher CASM than does a DC-9, but that's not the only number that matters. If that was all that mattered, then RJs and their high CASMs would have never existed. Obviously it's cheaper for management to contract out CRJs or Saabs or they would do it in a -9.

For the record, I don't want to see larger planes flying at XJ or 9E or really any regional. I too would someday like to be employed at a major. However, to (as someone did in an above post) pass off XJ and 9E as nothing more than a 65 million dollar a quarter expense is stupid. How much do you think it would cost for mainline to provide the same service? We provide a service that helps fill your planes. The bottom line is that unless mainline flies Saabs and CRJs (an idea that I think is fine....farfetched...but fine with me) regionals will be required. I think the problem with many regionals is that RJs are being used on routes that can and should be supported by mainline aircraft. To end my rant/thought, I hope the NWA pilots hold firm on their scope and get the 70/90/100 seat airplanes, and regionals are used in their traditional role to feed mainline. I also hope everyone realizes that it's NWA, XJ and 9E that are getting pissed on by NWA management. We're all losers. NWA pilots are probably losing their pensions and will be strong armed into crappy pay on new and possibly current airplanes. Regional pilots are facing the same thing. S**t rolls downhill.

 

[CptMurf]

You did..

AA

Actually, we just inherited this rate from him when he/she left the regionals. Unless the mainlines are going to start hirining 300hr PFTers, they must start at the regionals (or military but thats a different story). That means accepted current contract rates as a newhire and work on raising the bar. Just look at the nice lllllooooooooonnnnnggggg contract you left Eagle with.

 

[CptMurf]

As for mainline giving up scope......they already did in that 2 year bridge agreement you signed. And they will give it up again (once forced into that corner). Oh yeah, that agreement also gave management the ability to bring in a 3rd Airlink, which exclustivity was one of our most powerfull weapons in negotiating contracts. Thanks for that one, you must really want a "Mesa" type contract carrier fighting for not only our jobs, but yours too.

 

[profit]

I have to assume that many people making posts are up too late, have had too much to drink, or are JUST PLAIN STUPID.

Question for Red MEAT, Nu GUY and JT8D...if the regionals are so unnecessary, why in the world would ALL of the airlines have them? Just to waste money?

 

[NuGuy]

I have to assume that many people making posts are up too late, have had too much to drink, or are JUST PLAIN STUPID.

Question for Red MEAT, Nu GUY and JT8D...if the regionals are so unnecessary, why in the world would ALL of the airlines have them? Just to waste money?

Hrmmm, "all" might be too strong a word here...

SWA - No regionals

JetBlue - No Regionals (actually, they found it better to "insource" the flying)

AirTran - Tried it, sh!tcanned them

Regional airlines only make sense when you can profit from the feed. Back in the day when you nicked Joe Business for $800 each way to fly from East Butthole, MN to his conference get-a-way in New Orleans, then it made it worthwhile. Now a days, the same guy is paying $169 round trip, and that doesn't even pay for the APU burn on your RJ rent-a-jet. This cat is going to be riding the "Mankato Meteor" van service here in a year or so to make his AirTran flight out of MSP. It's the "wave of the future".

Everyone here likes to point out here what wonderous futures the likes of JB, AT and SWA have. Well, fine and good, and heck, I might even grant them that. But, when you have a lot more of them, that equals a whole lot less regional flying.

Good news is that all the van services are hiring, BUT, you have to have a type on the Econoline, and you have to PFT.

Nu