Skywest Rumor??

[adperkins]

I heard rumor of Skywest getting A 320's and B 717's? Can anyone verify this?? Also...what is Skywest's hiring status lately?


Thanks

 

[willis]

someone about a week ago asked this same question. Search this forum nd you should be happy

 

[avratdwc]

Yeah, there was a huge discussion over a couple weeks about this issue. General Lee was having a field day with this issue so be careful. I am also interested in hearing about what they are doing with regards to hiring. CYA

 

[Ben Dover]

I heard a different rumor. SkyWest is reportedly going to take their spare cash & buy United, America West, and US Air. Then promptly take the newly aquired equipment to the aluminum recycler and make a 300% return on their investment overnight! I don't believe it, but that's what I heard.

 

[AAWORKER]

I HEARD THEY WERE GOING TO BUY AEROFLOT


JUST KIDDING FELLOW PILOTS I JUST THOUGHT I WOULD PUT SOMETHING FUNNY....BUT WHATEVER SKYWEST DOES I HOPE IT TURNS OUT JUST RIGHT....I PLAN ON APPLYING IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.....I AM JUST HELPING MY FRIEND SO SHE CAN BECOME AN AIRLINE PILOT TOO....SO UNTILL THEN GOOD LUCK TO ALL AND I HOPE TO MEET ANDY NEIL SOON

 

[azpilot]

You are all WRONG! Skywest is buying Delta, American, Northwest, Great Lakes, Mesa, Comair, British Airways and Lufthansa. All aircraft except for the trans-continental are going to be downsized to RJ's with girls from Hooters as flight attendants.

 

[sstearns2]

hiring

Skywest is still interviewing. The March jet class is all F/O's and all but about 7 are newhires. The cancelled the March EMB upgrade class(es?), but the april and beyond classes are still supposed to happen. I'm not sure what's happening with EMB newhire classes. Maybe Andy will post something.

Just about every rumor you can think of is floating around the line right now.

Scott

 

[120% Torque]

Adperkins, just curious what your "sources" were for this rumor? There certainly is no lack of speculation (which can be fun) as to what SkyWest intends to do after the CEO on Jan 14 said that there is huge Vaccuum being created in the 130 seat and less catagorie flying. I know I have heard everything from buying used 737's and operating at Southwest minus 20% to adding additional code shares (Continental EMB flying out of Houston, Jetblue EMB flying out of CA, Northwest RJ flying out of SEA...). Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between. Of course there is always the possiblity that the idea of flying bigger airplanes is just a bluff to get SkyWest pilots to give more concessions after which management will say the bigger airplane flying thing isnt feasable after all. Who Knows??! Certainly if United collapses as it looks like it may I would think an independant operation could happen (pipe down General).

One must be carefull to not get expectations too high if you are or plan on flying there. So the story goes that back in the mid eighties SkyWest had identified some flying possiblities with L1011's off the west coast to Hawaii and you can imagine this got the attention of guys flying Metros at the time. I even heard the rumor had validity in that SkyWest management had actually started discussions with someone who had a few L1011's laying around. Of course as we all know now nothing ever came of it.

Heres one more bit of speculation. If the stories I heard are true (help me out here Comair guys) when Comair was flying independantly (not owned by Delta but codesharing with Delta) they were pretty much kicking butt and making tons of money out of Cinci. Well, they started toying around with the idea of flying 737's independantly. Delta basically said Whoooa there boys we dont like that idea too much, go ahead and forget about flying those bigger airplanes and just do what we assign you. Comair then purportedly said "guess what? We pretty much own a lot of the flying going out of Cinci and frankly we could make money flying independenly, you need us more than we need you." So the story goes that soon after this a deal was made for Delta to purchase and therefore better control the operations of Comair. What does this story have to do with SkyWest. Maybe some shrewd SkyWest managers remember the way that story played out so they leak some info out to the aviation community that they are looking at bigger airplanes and possibly flying them independantly IF Delta doesnt lock into another contract and goes to Mesa for cheaper. Now Delta must think of the repercussions of not only losing a quality product but also having to compete with another so called low cost carrier. In other words, maybe SkyWest is trying to force the issue a little bit letting Delta know what the repercussions could be if they cancle with SkyWest.

Personally I would like to see SkyWest break free and fly bigger airplanes independantly. They have the cash (over 500 million in the bank just sitting there) and the resources out west to grab a chunk of United assets at pennies on the dollar (not so much for airplanes but for gates and other operational assets) and flying should United fall to chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Lastly, I heard the CEO was on the jumpseat chatting with a couple pilots last week and said an announcement would be made in the near future but did not indicate exactly what that was. After all the hype it will probably be something like "we are getting five seventy seat RJ's and flying them for United". After all the speculation some might take it as a letdown. We shall see. If you work for Skywest, hope for the best, prepare for the worst!

 

[General Lee]

One of my friends who was in the last new hire class had a senior manager come in and talk about the future. He said that there was a possibility that they could drop all RJ flying, park them, and buy 737's etc to fly new-risk flying. When asked how many pilots they would need---he said only 300 total. Why would he say this to a new hire class? I do not know. He said that Delta has been trying to get them to cut about $40 million off their fees, and if they do not they could get someone like Mesa to do it. United is currently trying to cut their fees. The other rumor abound is that Skywest would offer E120 services for Continental in IAH and throughout Florida---taking some Gulfstream Airlines routes. I guess some of the jet routes in IAH---like Laredo, Kilieen, and Waco etc aren't profitable with Emb-135 jets. Some of the Florida routes could be more profitable with E120's instead of BE-1900's.
I don't know about the trimming of pilots down to 300 total, but I believe that senior management is getting upset with all of the jerking around from Delta and United. Hey, I have a better idea---let's just cut the Delta pilots' wages and that would save everything!!! Yeah, right.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[surplus1]

Heres one more bit of speculation. If the stories I heard are true (help me out here Comair guys) when Comair was flying independantly (not owned by Delta but codesharing with Delta) they were pretty much kicking butt and making tons of money out of Cinci. Well, they started toying around with the idea of flying 737's independantly. Delta basically said Whoooa there boys we dont like that idea too much, go ahead and forget about flying those bigger airplanes and just do what we assign you. Comair then purportedly said "guess what? We pretty much own a lot of the flying going out of Cinci and frankly we could make money flying independenly, you need us more than we need you." So the story goes that soon after this a deal was made for Delta to purchase and therefore better control the operations of Comair. What does this story have to do with SkyWest?

Well my friend, I don't know what that story has to do with Skywest, but I can assure you it has nothing at all to do with Comair. Comair never "toyed with the idea of flying 737s independently" or otherwise and that had nothing to do with our unfortunate acquisition by Delta. You said it was a "story" and you were right.

Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see ... and you still won't really know what's going on.