When are the Saabs leaving at Mesaba?

[MALSR]

Any speculation? Lets face it, there's better airplanes suited for the same type of job that offer lower seat mile cost.

 

[Mesabi Miner]

Any chance we can focus on increasing the fleet size instead of shrinking it? There's been nothing grinding in the rumor mill regarding replacing the Saabs.

MM

 

[CptMurf]

Any speculation? Lets face it, there's better airplanes suited for the same type of job that offer lower seat mile cost.

35 knot crosswind limitation (XJ Limit), 2600 ft non-factored landing distance fully loaded, and 1000 pounds per hour feeding airports that we are the only game in town and keep our 30 seat airplanes full. I think it is the perfect airplane for our operation.

The CRJ's allow us to go into larger markets and growth opportunities, but our bread and butter has ALWAYS been the turboprop market. That is why the schedules have always been better on the SAAB.

Now back to the original question...They shortened the leases in the BK to surprisingly the same length that the pilot CBA was for, about 5.5 years (give or take). I'm sure this is the stick they will beat over our head next time.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

They start refurbishing the Saabs in the near future. Paint, cabin interior, and some work on the cockpits. Lot of wasted money if they dump them in the near future.

 

[JPAustin]

They (management) recognize the ROI on the Saabs. The 340 is still very viable, and it is a lot cheaper to refurb a perfectly good fleet that just needs a little TLC to look and act like any other "modern" turboprop fleet out there -- save of course a fleet of Q400s.

 

[norskman2]

That is why the schedules have always been better on the SAAB.

Curious. What's makes the Saab skaadules better?

 

[JPAustin]

Curious. What's makes the Saab skaadules better?

Lower profile hotels...

 

[DoinTime]

Lower profile hotels...

To bad they still don't let you throw the deck furniture in the pool.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

When are the Saabs leaving?

http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KDTW/departures?;offset=0;sort=DESC;order=aircrafttype

There's your answer, Fishbulb.

 

[XJ-spartacus]

Ahhh, there's nothing like bad coffee on a cold CMX high speed. Except on those ones with less than 2 hours of ground time. Now that was fun. Doing reverse donuts in the crew car, in our uniforms, in the Walmart parking lot with big gulps of redbull, now that was a good time. Priceless.

-Spartacus

 

[BoilerUP]

Any speculation? Lets face it, there's better airplanes suited for the same type of job that offer lower seat mile cost.

Like what, a Caravan?

Its really too bad the Saab 2000 was a victim of timing :uzi:

 

[fly4ever]

Lower profile hotels...

Yeah! One floor, door to the parking lot, equipped with a shovel in the winter, keys on the counter at 12 midnight, room door unlocked anyway, BUT, probably the cleanest room you would ever stay 4 hrs in.....any guesses?!

The Bates Motel CMX - ahhh, the memories.

Also the winter drive into the Soo Quality Inn.....

and donuts in the parking lot, midnight visits to the casino etc.... PRICELESS!

I just don't miss those prime locations anymore!

 

[John Pennekamp]

Any speculation? Lets face it, there's better airplanes suited for the same type of job that offer lower seat mile cost.

You know what they say... when NWA retires the last Airbus the crew will deadhead home on a DC-9. Add to that, when NWA retires the last DC-9, the crew will deadhead home on a Saab.

 

[MALSR]

They start refurbishing the Saabs in the near future. Paint, cabin interior, and some work on the cockpits. Lot of wasted money if they dump them in the near future.

Yeah but they also did this to the Avros right up until they sent them to the desert.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

The Bates Motel CMX - ahhh, the memories.

For some reason I always slept great there. I don't know if it was the fresh air, or the thought of the yummy cinnamon rolls in that Tupperware container sitting out for us. . .

God I hated highspeeds.

 

[TOOL CRIB]

They start refurbishing the Saabs in the near future. Paint, cabin interior, and some work on the cockpits. Lot of wasted money if they dump them in the near future.

What, no more pink Saabs?

 

[fly4ever]

For some reason I always slept great there. I don't know if it was the fresh air, or the thought of the yummy cinnamon rolls in that Tupperware container sitting out for us. . .

God I hated highspeeds.

True.....Good Times

 

[FSIGRAD]

The Red Fox in MQT, stale donuts in the frig but a different cereal each time.........

 

[SEVEN]

The Red Fox in MQT, stale donuts in the frig but a different cereal each time.........

And a ghost in the closet from the Korean War.

 

[submachXJ]

The Red Fox in MQT, stale donuts in the frig but a different cereal each time.........

Shine it up a little, a two bedroom and living room with a mini kitchen with stove and oven. Now all you got to do is bring the super sized lunch bag and presto. Oh yeah and if your looking for something to do on the longer overnights, not the highspeed, you can count the number of bugs in the ovehead light fixture in the bathroom. Praise the lord they have a bar there. You can hang out with the UPers.

 

[TurboAWD]

To bad they still don't let you throw the deck furniture in the pool.

Ouch. Everyone has a bad day now and then...

Turbo

 

[Jamis81]

Saabs

FWIW ---

Training Center rumors from when I was there this summer, NWA is looking at the Q200/300/400.

Now that there isn't an airplane in the fleet than can go to Aspen, apparently they are looking at the Q400, and the smaller Q's to replace the Saab...

This could also just be the wet dreams of former Dash pilots though too, I dunno.

 

[Raskal]

FWIW ---

Training Center rumors from when I was there this summer, NWA is looking at the Q200/300/400.

Now that there isn't an airplane in the fleet than can go to Aspen, apparently they are looking at the Q400, and the smaller Q's to replace the Saab...

This could also just be the wet dreams of former Dash pilots though too, I dunno.

Well, not entirely true. The 900 could go there, the problem is though the 900 performance is worlds apart from the underpowered 200 it has too many seats for ASE, so too hard to make any damn money. The avro ops into there rarely made much of a margin either. I for one hope (as I've heard from various people on property) that the Q400 does come in, otherwise there are a whole lot of small airport markets we would be walking away from. We'll see soon, the first 340B leases start expiring in 2010.

 

[Jamis81]

400vs900

Thats cool about the 900 I didn't know it could go into Aspen. Well, I stand corrected.. wonder if we'll start going there anytime soon.. probably not by the sounds of it.

 

[FlyingToIST]

FWIW ---

Training Center rumors from when I was there this summer, NWA is looking at the Q200/300/400.

Now that there isn't an airplane in the fleet than can go to Aspen, apparently they are looking at the Q400, and the smaller Q's to replace the Saab...

This could also just be the wet dreams of former Dash pilots though too, I dunno.

Then why did they drop the 200s for Saabs at the first place?

 

[Jamis81]

saabs

Then why did they drop the 200s for Saabs at the first place?

I couldn't tell you, what I wrote about the Q's is just what I heard from some of the people in the training center

 

[xjhawk]

Here is some fuel for the fire. NWA can only get 90 76 regional jets unless they increase the mainline fleet on a 1:1 basis. They already have 72 on their way to mesaba and compass (together). That leaves 18 more that can come. I think they will excersize those options for either compass or XJ. NWA has options for something like 90 planes at EMB and 150 planes at Bombardier. What are those planes going to be if they have such scope limitations to adhere to? Here is a thought.

18 more 76 seaters

Bombardier Q series orders

a larger than 110 seat DC -9 replacement to adhere to scope for the NWA pilots

no more crj 200's since they are not cost effective in this high fuel world

 

[sinkrate]

NW has to keep XJ under the AC limit that would trigger a snap back in pay rates, for a while. They also need to build it into a 100 AC all jet fleet before they can spin it off in an IPO.

Wild guess

The remaining CR9's go to XJ along with the 17 200's from 9E

To make the fleet all jet the SF3's go to Colgan and more of 9E's fleet goes to XJ

If NW does place a Q order they go to Colgan and even more of 9E's 200 fleet goes to XJ

The first NW CRJ goes back to the lessor in May '10, two and half years from right now. After that 2 a month go back for a year and then three a month go back.

When NW has the CRJ fleet the way they want it at XJ Pinnacle Inc will file BK and shut down.

Pinnacle Corp then has a non union carrier at Colgan that has a large number of tuboprops and NW spins off XJ in an IPO

Then the whipsaw starts over again.

It's an old familiar feeling

 

[Andrew_VT]

They also need to build it into a 100 AC all jet fleet before they can spin it off in an IPO.

Why?! All jet fleets were sooo 90's

All your predictions are based on this 'all jet at XJ' thing...which I don't get at all.

 

[XJohXJ]

NW has to keep XJ under the AC limit that would trigger a snap back in pay rates, for a while. They also need to build it into a 100 AC all jet fleet before they can spin it off in an IPO.

What are you talking about? All we need is 36 jets by Dec 1, 2008 to get the full snapback percentage for that date. We are on track to have over 36 jets by that date. We are already half way there with a full year to go. Even if something happened and deliveries stopped, we would get half of our snap back (with 18 total jets). If we get all of the planes we are currently allocated (or even 17 less than currently allocated) we will be at full snapback by Dec 1, 2009.

We all know that Mesaba and NWA mgt will trip all over themselves to steal an extra penny for their bonus checks. However, "snap back paranoia" is a bit over the top. The BK was all about beating down the price of Mesaba, and allowing NWA to pick it up for a song.