Siegel: MidAtlantic Airways to begin flying next spring
WASHINTON (ATWonline.com) - US Airways President and CEO David Siegel reiterated yesterday that the airline intends to go forward with launch of a new Regional carrier called MidAtlantic Airways next spring and hinted that the operation will order regional jets from Embraer.
Speaking to the International Aviation Club in Washington yesterday, Siegel said that US Airways' Air Line Pilots Assn. unit granted the airline unprecedented relief from scope clause restrictions to enable it to operate more than 400 RJs, including new-generation 70-seaters.
The new carrier will operate as a US Airways Express and will be staffed in large part by furloughed mainline employees in virtually all workgroups. Although Siegel did not specify what type of RJs the airline plans to acquire, he did say he was taking a redeye to Brazil--home of Embraer--last night to discuss financing for a significant aircraft order.
In a wide-ranging and often humorous speech touching on the state of the industry and US Airways' ongoing bankruptcy reorganization and financial restructuring, Siegel jokingly referred to Delta Air Lines Chairman and CEO Leo Mullin as Leo 'Dr. Evil' Mullin and said that Delta's strategy is pretty simple--to put US Airways out of business. He defended the proposed codesharing alliance with United Airlines as pro-competitive and pro-consumer while criticizing the response by Delta, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines as anticompetitive.
Siegel said that US Airways' new RJs are not necessarily intended as a response to incursions by low-cost carriers. The markets we are likely to deploy RJs in are not markets with low-cost carriers...RJs work well in markets that are too long and too thin for mainline jets or turboprops.
WASHINTON (ATWonline.com) - US Airways President and CEO David Siegel reiterated yesterday that the airline intends to go forward with launch of a new Regional carrier called MidAtlantic Airways next spring and hinted that the operation will order regional jets from Embraer.
Speaking to the International Aviation Club in Washington yesterday, Siegel said that US Airways' Air Line Pilots Assn. unit granted the airline unprecedented relief from scope clause restrictions to enable it to operate more than 400 RJs, including new-generation 70-seaters.
The new carrier will operate as a US Airways Express and will be staffed in large part by furloughed mainline employees in virtually all workgroups. Although Siegel did not specify what type of RJs the airline plans to acquire, he did say he was taking a redeye to Brazil--home of Embraer--last night to discuss financing for a significant aircraft order.
In a wide-ranging and often humorous speech touching on the state of the industry and US Airways' ongoing bankruptcy reorganization and financial restructuring, Siegel jokingly referred to Delta Air Lines Chairman and CEO Leo Mullin as Leo 'Dr. Evil' Mullin and said that Delta's strategy is pretty simple--to put US Airways out of business. He defended the proposed codesharing alliance with United Airlines as pro-competitive and pro-consumer while criticizing the response by Delta, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines as anticompetitive.
Siegel said that US Airways' new RJs are not necessarily intended as a response to incursions by low-cost carriers. The markets we are likely to deploy RJs in are not markets with low-cost carriers...RJs work well in markets that are too long and too thin for mainline jets or turboprops.
