Skywest loses flying to Mesa

[Av8rPHX]

Re-read his post. He was quoting some airport manager. What's with calling the guy a scab anyway....geez.

Its the trendy thing to do these days. Just like the iPods and backpacks.

 

[loverobot]

So lets see; skywest loses its government contract flying to some crappy place. Mesa nows flys to the crappy place instead. And this is news?

Certainly Skywest will fly to some other crappy places in the future, theres lots of crappy places.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

It's ALL about YOU!

FOkkers.

MESA SUCKS

P.S have you seen their windbreakers? Cheeziest thing i have ever seen even, why does anyone wear it? It has a huge MESA logo on the front for everyone to see. GROSS

I know I wear mine just to pi$$ YOU off, Mr Superpilot. :laugh:

P.S. We don't have those Fokkers any longer.

 

[Going2Baja]

I loved the CDC overnights. Nothing better than drinking a cold brew we brought w/ us on the way to the pizza place down the street. We left the brews in the snow until after dinner and had a nice walk back to the hotel. BTW - the girls are really cute in CDC.

Baja.

 

[DX Rick]

Its the trendy thing to do these days. Just like the iPods and backpacks.

It's trendy!

 

[ReverseSensing]

...theres lots of crappy places.

LMAO! The salvation of the regional airline industry: Crappy places.

 

[DirkkDiggler]

Its the trendy thing to do these days. Just like the iPods and backpacks.

Fuking hilarious.

 

[Rogue5]

Article published Jan 27, 2006

Mesa Airlines: We will do our best to serve Cedar Winner of air service contract seeks to appease naysayers
Residents call on airline to begin offering flights to Salt Lake City
By STEVE KIGGINS
[email protected]

CEDAR CITY - Mesa Airlines officials have a message for the people of Cedar City: "We will do our best to serve you."

One day after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Mesa would replace SkyWest as Cedar City's essential air service provider - a decision that was harshly criticized by city officials - the Phoenix-based airline pledged that it would listen to the community and work to meet its needs.

"We want to do a good job and we want people in Cedar City to be happy," said Peter Murnane, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Mesa Air Group. "If there's something we need to do differently, we will try to do that."

What Mesa needs to do is add daily flights to Salt Lake City, said Steve Farmer, manager of Cedar City Regional Airport. Utah's capital city is the final destination for 51 percent of travelers from Cedar City, according to research done last year by SkyWest.

Currently, SkyWest offers three daily flights to and from Salt Lake City. The St. George-based airline plans to protest the USDOT's decision.

"The community feels like it needs service to Salt Lake City and that it needs service with the larger aircrafts and a Delta connection," Farmer said. "But what the community wanted obviously wasn't worth what the DOT wanted to pay for it."

If service to Salt Lake City is what it will take to please the people of Cedar City, Mickey Bowman, Mesa's director of planning, said his company will look to alter its original proposal, which included two daily flights to and from Las Vegas and one round-trip flight to Phoenix four days a week.

"We want to do what's best for the community. If they want service to Salt Lake City, we're more than willing to work with them to make that happen," Bowman said. "With our aircrafts and our financial structure, we can probably make it work.

"We're going to put pen to paper and see what we come up with. If that's two flights to Salt Lake City and one to Las Vegas (each day), maybe that's what we end up doing."

Mesa plans to service Cedar City with 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D turboprop airplanes, smaller than the 30-seat Embraer-120 turboprops used by SkyWest.

Despite their size, Beechcrafts are "good airplanes," said Bill Gatchell, airport manager at Lea County Regional Airport in Hobbs, N.M.

"You can't beat a Beechcraft," said Gatchell, a former corporate pilot.

He also praised Mesa, which has provided service from his southeastern New Mexico city since the early 1980s. Mesa, which won Air Transport World Magazine's Regional Airline of the Year award in 2005, offers three daily flights from Hobbs to Albuquerque.

"I would fly to Hell and back with Mesa," Gatchell said. "They're great. They've got money in the bank and they know what they're doing."

While Farmer, Mayor Gerald R. Sherratt and Southern Utah University President Steven Bennion voiced their displeasure with the USDOT's decision, Cedar City resident Karen Meltzer celebrated the news.

"If you want to get on an airplane in Cedar City, you have no choice. You have to go to Salt Lake City," Meltzer said. "That's not always the best thing for everybody."

On a recent vacation, Meltzer said she and her husband, Norm, opted to drive to St. George and use the St. George Shuttle to go to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

"I would have loved to be able to get off the airplane (after the vacation), go out to the car and, in 10 minutes, we're home," she said.

But the round-trip price to fly from Cedar City was hundreds of dollars more than using the St. George Shuttle and flying from Las Vegas, she said.

Still, Meltzer said she hopes Mesa adds at least one daily flight from Cedar City to Salt Lake City.

"I firmly believe we need that," she said. "But three flights to Salt Lake City, it's nuts."

Upon learning of the USDOT's decision on Wednesday, SkyWest officials said they would file a protest. Those plans had not changed on Thursday, said Todd Emerson, the airline's director of government affairs.

"I'm also an attorney in addition to being director of government affairs, and there's seven kinds of motion we can make to fight this," he said. "We haven't landed on a legal strategy, but we have every right to file a petition for reconsideration."

A petition must be filed within 30 days of SkyWest receiving official notification from the USDOT. That notification had yet to be received as of 5:45 p.m. Thursday, Emerson said.

Mesa officials, meanwhile, are preparing to take their place in Cedar City. "We have a long history of working with EAS communities, and we'll do the same with this city," Bowman said.

 

[Jetscream32]

Who the hel! cares! It's one little podunk town. If some other carrier besides Mesa picked up the EAS route no one would say a word. Get over yourselves.

 

[propsarebest]

Who the hel! cares! It's one little podunk town. If some other carrier besides Mesa picked up the EAS route no one would say a word. Get over yourselves.

Your'e absloutly right, NOBODY said a friggin word when we lost VIS to Scenic.