Skywest losses IAH COEX flying

[captjim]

Rumor has it that CAL was not happy with Skywest. The performance was not what had been expected.
- bad info - CAL put flying that was to exp out for bid and the lowest bidder won - nothing to do with SKYW's performance! I like when people just come up with conclusions that r not right - it is better to be factual with info. Cal is low bidding now XJT, watch out in '07...

Once again to another Skywest guy getting bent out of shape. Read my post again, becouse yours has no merit. Guy learn to deal with loosing flying just like everyone else in the industry. Feels different now that the shoe is on the other foot doesn't it?

Fact:

CAL put your, wait our old flying to bid on. Why? Cost or Performance or both. Do you know for sure?

It was in the USA Today

As I said rumor, wait read again rumor. Rumor has it that CAL was not happy with Skywest. I know Uncle Jerry has you all conditioned that there are none better, but guess what.

 

[SkyWestCRJPilot]

I flew down in Houston for a year on the Continental Connection side of SkyWest. I think SkyWest did a great job down there and that's what we continually heard was that Continental was pleased with our service.

Regarding what someone said about ontime performance, half of those Brailias have ACARS which doesn't lie. You can't just close the main cabin door and reopen it again like I've seen one airline do. The right engine has to be started to get an out time.

The overnighting aircraft in certain cities that ExpressJet started redoing was because SkyWest told Continental they needed a few more Brasilias overnighting in IAH so they could do routine maintenance on them. Continental had ExpressJet pick up the overnights in a few cities.

Regarding a more comfortable service on ExpressJet, I've flown on ExpressJet and I really enjoyed every flight. When it comes to flying on a hot noisy Brasilia or a new cool ERJ most passengers would prefer the ERJ but that's not what Continental wants on those routes so RJs aren't an option.

Also SkyWest is making money in Houston. The first 9 months they had low ticket prices to increase market share but later raised prices and were profitable. With all of that being said the reality is that the new passenger weights that went into affect about a year ago really hurt the Brasilia. Going from 170 lbs to 190 lbs made the airplane really restricted to more like 24-26 passengers. It was either that or not carry all of the luggage. SkyWest mulled the idea of buying Q400s last summer but decided they weren't going to invest in a 4th fleet type. When the bid went out Continental wanted bids for a larger sized turboprop including 50 seat turboprops, something SkyWest was unwilling to invest in. SkyWest lost the this bid for turboprop flying which was only 1% of SkyWest's total available seat miles.

Those 67 SkyWest pilots will have to be relocated and I imagine difficult for those that bought homes down there. But I can guarantee that when ExpressJet's contract is open for rebid for January of 2007 SkyWest will put their bid in for RJ flying.

 

[MELIT]

Av8tor02,


A good product in the airline business is an ontime airline for both people and bags. SKYW has not been doing that hot of a job in either category here in IAH. They show ontime because they call their own times. I have heard a number of ops calls with the times being called ontime when in fact they are late. With the new bag weight issue, they also leave behind people and bags on a regular basis. The product is not by any means the greatest here in IAH. I've flown on SKYW a number of times both on the 120 and on the CRJ. In my opinion, there are other carriers out there that do a much better job. XJT offers a far more seamless, comfortable, and friendly operation that any SKYW flight I've been on.

With that being said, in the end SKYW lost the flying because they were underbid. SKYW has also been losing money since they showed up in IAH so I'll bet they really aren't too upset that this little experiment is over. It really has nothing to do with the product quality. Can Colgan offer a better product? I guess we will all see later this year. This isn't really a big deal for SKYW except for those crewmembers who settled down and made plans to be in IAH for some time.

How much money have they lost?
Do you think colgan will be more "seamless"? (Whatever the fuct that means)
Comfortable, I've flown on XJT no 50 seat airplane is comfortabe.
Friendly, CO ran the operation not Skywest.

 

[av8n4life]

Colgan's are B's also and 34 seat configuration haven't been flying in the extreme heat of the south, so I guess we'll see what happens when summer rolls around

 

[homerjdispatch]

CO runs the IAH part. SkyWest runs the outstations.

 

[flifo81]

CO runs the IAH part. SkyWest runs the outstations.

So out of the SkyWest routes, all of the out stations are run by SkyWest? None of them, excluding IAH, were run by CO or XJT? That said, those will turn into Colgan stations now?!?!

 

[hotwing]

Low bid won here only guys! This is not about CAL not being happy with one of the best regionals out there... This is all about the lowest bidder, obviously, as in this case... It is all about the bottom dollar - XJT GUYS wait for '07 when your contract expires and the bidding starts...

 

[BRA]

Where is it written that the lowest bidder won? This may be true, but show me a press release. May be colgan was just in the right place at the right time. Other airlines may have made lower bids but couldn't get the planes fast enough. Example- commutair, gulfstream. Colgan already has the training program in place and flies the planes already. It may be hot in texas but our cowboys can fly with the best of them. Just wait until you see a dude back taxi two thousand feet backwards while holding a small mirror out the window of his new continental stylin rig. You also may see an aircraft taxi in with dents all over it from a hail pounding. And heel spurs, freightened FO's, and flight attendants with brusied foreheads.

Memo to Colgan: Have fun in houston, you won't find us there.

Signed: Patriots Fan, Steeler fan, and Giants fan, and controllers from baston that Pawk in a Pawking lot.

 

[NRHPilot]

For our saabs at DFW, we really don't take a performance hit until maybe 40 degrees or so. We used to get hit hard in cities like AMA and LBB, but now the only city that we go to that has maybe a problem in the summer is SJT with an elevation of 1919' where we may take a climb performance hit. Now that ILE (5000 foot runway) is gone where we took a huge runway performance hit, we really don't have to bad a problem. The real problem is the higher BOW weights of the Aircraft and the 190# Summer passenger weights.

 

[Smoked Toilet]

Whats done is done. SkyWest was unwilling to go the 50 seat prop route. It wasnt a big surprise to many of us. The guys down there did a great job.

Good luck to the pilots, fa's, and cust serv reps down there that may need to relocate.

How about having a little respect for those guys instead of biatching about rumors.

 

[Jet_Dreamer]

So can someone say that it is 100% confirmed that Colgan is the carrier that won the contract? Or is this still rumor.

actually mesa won the contract. they will using dhc-8's that they recent aquired thought a merger that will be made public in a couple weeks.

 

[flifo81]

you wish it was Mesa....It was all the way Colgan Air!

 

[hotwing]

wrong again

Once again to another Skywest guy getting bent out of shape. Read my post again, becouse yours has no merit. Guy learn to deal with loosing flying just like everyone else in the industry. Feels different now that the shoe is on the other foot doesn't it?

Fact:

CAL put your, wait our old flying to bid on. Why? Cost or Performance or both. Do you know for sure?

It was in the USA Today

As I said rumor, wait read again rumor. Rumor has it that CAL was not happy with Skywest. I know Uncle Jerry has you all conditioned that there are none better, but guess what.

Sorry man, but I do not work for Skywest -- just an educated and informed reader... Thanks though.

 

[BRA]

"Welcome to Texas Colgan Air, happy to have you!"

-bull riding arenas, anna nicole, chew breath, and mouth cancer"

 

[jetexas]

-bull riding arenas, anna nicole, chew breath, and mouth cancer"

Yeah, all 14 million of us.

 

[BRA]

no hard feelings, i'm just bored on a saturday jetexas

 

[chperplt]

Islandboi

Are you 12?? You sure talk like your 12...

 

[rattler]

- XJT GUYS wait for '07 when your contract expires and the bidding starts...[/QUOTE]

Your right. I think CAL will want to bring in another carrier to whipsaw us against. But, with that being said, CAL still ownes 30% of X-Jet. It is hard to say what will happen in 2 years, right now the understanding is CAL will sell of the rest of it's shares, and the two companies will be completely independent of each other. But if CAL retains it's shares or buys back into X-Jet, then, I would guess the two companies would reach another agreement which guarentees a profit at X-Jet. It won't be as good as the current CPA, but may limit all CAL small jet flying to X-Jet again. X-Jet will have 275 ERJ's by then. I am sure CAL wants to see them all flying. Either way I find it very hard to believe that CAL will just send X-Jet packing in 07 because they were underbid by airline ABC.

 

[flifo81]

chperplt

Why is that? Just because I don't sit and bi*ch about my job 24/7 I'm twelve? Or are you complaining that I ask too much? Well, maybe I'm inquisitive, and want to learn.

 

[NEDude]

We here at CommutAir are hearing that Colgan won the bid. From the information coming out of our front offices, Colgan underbid us by a cost of $100/hour. Oh well we still have CLE though, and I think that contract is solid for another year and a half. It was 42 month contract with a review after 12 months, and we are 22 months into it. Congrats to the Colgan guys.

PS- Our bid was with the Saab 340B+ and we would not be able to bring them online until August or September at the earliest. Don't know about the configuration and load carrying ability of the B versus the B+. Anybody else know?

 

[hotwing]

I think you are correct in this theory. Who the heck knows in today's situation. The thing that needs to be looked upon heavily is Delta with ASA and Comair. They both were underbid for their own flying by not only Skywest but Chit. also... I think that CAL may diversify thier portfolio - this is just looking at history of the industry over the last few years... What do you guys think?

 

[captjim]

Sorry man, but I do not work for Skywest -- just an educated and informed reader... Thanks though.

If you're informed and educated, please state your source as to the hows and why's. As a side note this is a board that propagates rumors and theories. If you come here looking only for fact go to the library. Either way stop being so uptight.

 

[FlyChicaga]

About the CAL/XJT CPA... Remember that CAL owns all our aircraft here at XJT. If they start outsourcing jet feed to another carrier, and park any of these airplanes, then they are handling that cost. I don't know how that fact will play out in 2007, but I don't think we'll see a major change in the XJT role with the CAL plan. Just a change in how much they pay us. I believe the CPA extends to 2030 or 2020... that's a while. They can look and renegotiate the CPA in 2007. I'm sure someone else can shed more light on this.

 

[jetexas]

no hard feelings, i'm just bored on a saturday jetexas

None taken.
It was the anna nicole remark that set me off. To even think of that tubby piece of work almost ruined my evening!

 

[Paladin]

Whats done is done. SkyWest was unwilling to go the 50 seat prop route. It wasnt a big surprise to many of us. The guys down there did a great job.

Just curious...what 50 seat prop is Colgan going to operate out of IAH?? Do they have plans to acquire DHC8-300's? I'm assuming that Colgan is going to have to rework their Northeast operations. Is it possible that the only thing remaining in the NE will be EAS flying with the B1900 and some random Saab flights for US?
Cheers,
Markus

 

[Dave Benjamin]

About the CAL/XJT CPA... Remember that CAL owns all our aircraft here at XJT. If they start outsourcing jet feed to another carrier, and park any of these airplanes, then they are handling that cost.

All CAL needs to do is take those airplanes that they own and lease them to your replacement. CAL owning the aircraft wouldn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling if I was an Xjet pilot. In fact it would be just the opposite. They could go to a small time operator with much lower costs and provide that airline with the equipment they need to grow. I'd feel more secure if Xjet owned the aircraft.

 

[Nova]

But who owns the outstation operations and personnel? It might be tough to fly into the ExpressJet stations when we own the gates (not all but most).

 

[rumorhasit]

Look for Co to Renegotiate the CPA to lower the block hour rate for an extension beyond 2007...xjt has THE BEST RJ PRODUCT IN THE BUSINESS....period...

come on xjt guys back me up on this....

 

[mesaba2425]

Just posted on the Skywest sites.

Please post the links to those sites.

 

[NEDude]

But who owns the outstation operations and personnel? It might be tough to fly into the ExpressJet stations when we own the gates (not all but most).

If you lose the codeshare and airpanes, how long do you think XJT would continue to pay for the gates and station personnel? Besides more gate space can be leased, and new station peronnel can be hired. United didn't lose much when they lost FlyI/ACA. In many places they (or the new codeshare partner for that city) leased another gate and brought in new station personnel.