N230UA said:
There is no precedent in the airline industry, AFAIK, for a partner to abrogate its contract prematurely, before renegotiation, and turn around and compete with its partner.
ACA is simply not renewing its contract with United, which is due to expire next spring.
Rather than reinventing my original thoughts as you have done, let's get back to what I said.
1) I never said that YV would abrogate their deal with UA...only that they weren't necessarily in it for the long term. The point of this comment is that everyone seems to think that YV is acting on behalf of UA to obtain ACA. Mesa is quite independent and will not throw away a half of a billion dollars plus in order to "save" UA's feed out of IAD. They have their own intentions...partly to get the DL busines, partly to get additional UA business, but there are other POSSIBILITIES.
2) Yes, Ornstein said it's "impossible to operate low-cost, point-to-point service using the small jets that Atlantic Coast proposes to use" but if you read what I said, I mentioned the same thing (RJs = small jets). I was creatively thinking that he would use his ties with Virgin and help start that product in the US (using larger planes, of course, since I already mentioned the RJs would not work, that was inferred).
AND...although YV didn't prematurely end the deal, they did turn around and sign the UA codeshare out of DEN while they were already providing feed for F9 out of the same hub. This was all BEFORE the termination of the F9 contract was announced. Starting a LCC hardly constitutes as "turning around and competing with its partner". Don't you think that flying RJ feed for UA out of IAD would be "turning around and competing" against Mesa's partner US out of DCA?? Large regionals get tricky when they know that they must diversify between carriers to protect themselves...especially in the age of the large airline BKs. Just think...a regional that feeds for UA, US, HP, YX, DL! Not to mention the SLIGHT CHANCE of an LCC. These are my ideas...not Ornstein's...but they could be...