The New US Airways Express

[FlyOnWall]

After the merger is complete, you would hope they will sit down and sort out the mess loosely known as US Airways Express. It looks like right now they have...

Piedmont (owned) Dash 8-100, 200, 300
PSA (owned) CRJ200, 700
Air Wisconsin CRJ200
Trans States ERJ145
Chautauqua ERJ145
Mesa CRJ900 /CRJ200 Dash 8 CRJ900 (west)
Colgan Air SAAB340 B1900
Republic E170
Air Midwest B1900

Who stays who goes... too many carriers ranging from mildly inconsistant to downright embarrassing. Here's my hopes/predictions...

E170s back in house, along with 190, 195, and 175. The idea of having an Express carrier fly the same plane type as mainline is absurd and boggles the mind it's been allowed.

Bye bye Mesa, Republic, Chau, TSA on the east.

AWAC buys Piedmont and PSA and merges into one, buys a s###load of Q400 and Q300s, a few more CRJ700 and 900s. Put Q400s on all shorter routes, redeploy RJs on longer Express routes and to expand further south and midwest. Have the new single carrier share both cost and revenue, not fee per departure or any other ridiculous capacity purchase agreement.

Keep Mesa out west until east is sorted out, then replace them with the new entity.

OR, less likely, do the same but with US buying AWAC and merging it into a single wholly-owned like American Eagle.
Have ONE consistent product with same standards in training, policies, appearance etc as US Airways, with flow-through and flow back provisions for employees.

Keep the B1900s around contracted as long as the EAS programs are feasible for them, but market them differently.

Other Express feedback?

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Well, it's always fascinating to speculate, but I doubt you are going to see any changes in the airlines US contracts work out to anytime in the near future.

No more "in-house" E170's soon with the demise of MDA.

Chautaqua and Republic are part of the same airline group along with Shuttle America, so as long as Republic still has a financial stake in US, you will see both CJ and RP flying in US livery.

I doubt US is going to invest in anymore DeHavilland product, despite their obvious fuel economy and usefulness on short-haul routes.

ZW is here to stay, at least while they are making money. Same with Mesa. Ornstein flies for lots of folks as long as he makes a profit. And ZV is a Mesa product, so it's just part of the deal for right now. Same with Colgan.

 

[FutureUScapt]

Keep Mesa out west until east is sorted out, then replace them with the new entity.

I think Mesa already has an agreement with HP/US West to be the exclusive express flyer out of PHX until 2013, so I doubt that will be happening soon. Can someone confirm or deny this?

 

[FCYTravis]

Colgan is not a Mesa product - it's an independent company based outside Washington, D.C. All of their flights operated as US Airways Express are operated at-risk on a pro-rate basis, so every time one of their US-coded flights takes off, US Airways just gets to count the cash. For that reason, and the fact that they provide some vital short-hop links in the Northeast, US isn't about to get rid of them.

Ditto for Air Midwest - all those subsidized EAS props are guaranteed moneymakers for US Airways. They even run a couple unsubsidized routes - RDU-CHS/ORF come to mind. Every time one of those ZV birds goes wheels-up, US gets paid a franchise fee.

Same for the Trans States E145s that are left on US East. It's at-risk flying.

I don't think RAH has any stake in US Airways. The Chautauqua lift is standard fee-for-departure, but pulling them down would require someone else to fill in - does Air Whiskey have 25 CRJs sitting around, or can they acquire them quickly, to replace the CHQ lift?

I think the Mesa exclusive contract for US West is through 2010 or 2012.

 

[RICflyer]

The Mesa contract out west is til 2010.

 

[jimcfs]

Colgan is not a Mesa product - it's an independent company based outside Washington, D.C. All of their flights operated as US Airways Express are operated at-risk on a pro-rate basis, so every time one of their US-coded flights takes off, US Airways just gets to count the cash. For that reason, and the fact that they provide some vital short-hop links in the Northeast, US isn't about to get rid of them.

Ditto for Air Midwest - all those subsidized EAS props are guaranteed moneymakers for US Airways. They even run a couple unsubsidized routes - RDU-CHS/ORF come to mind. Every time one of those ZV birds goes wheels-up, US gets paid a franchise fee.

Colgan also does EAS routes, even though they are soon going to be losing some to CO Express (I'm thinking BFD/JHW-PIT for example, which is shifting to CLE :down: ) Too bad those DH8's aren't coming to BLF/BKW. From what I've heard, BLF's runway isn't big/long enough for a DH8. (Runway 5/23 is 4742 x 100 ft.)

Does anyone know how Colgan is going to realign after losing some of their EAS routes to CO EX?

 

[JS]

Colgan also does EAS routes, even though they are soon going to be losing some to CO Express (I'm thinking BFD/JHW-PIT for example, which is shifting to CLE :down: ) Too bad those DH8's aren't coming to BLF/BKW. From what I've heard, BLF's runway isn't big/long enough for a DH8. (Runway 5/23 is 4742 x 100 ft.)

Does anyone know how Colgan is going to realign after losing some of their EAS routes to CO EX?

4742 feet is plenty long for a Dash-8. The problem is that BLF and BKW don't have enough passengers to fill a Dash-8. That would be more than double the capacity of the B1900.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Colgan is not a Mesa product - it's an independent company based outside Washington, D.C.

Sorry about that. I didn't mean to imply that Colgan was in any way owned by Mesa. I only meant to show that it would continue to fly for US while there was money to be made.

 

[700UW]

I have flown Colgan many times into and out fo Cape Cod, nice service and reliable.

 

[BoeingBoy]

With it taking 5-10 years to change out our narrowbody fleet and at least 5 to change out our widebody fleet, plus being committed to some of the affiliate express carriers for another 5-7 years, here's the fleet I'd like to see US moving toward by 2015 and in place by 2020-2025 (using aircraft that we know are at least on the drawing board today)....

EAS markets covered as now.

PDT/PSA** combined flying a mixture of Dash 8-300/400 and CRJ 200 - this would cover the low end of the capacity range and turboprop markets (other than EAS markets). (**Preference would be to fold PDT/PSA into mainline also, but wonder if management would go for that)

70 to 100 seat segment: E170/190 flown by mainline.

125 to 175 seat segment: 737 follow-on models (probably available before 2015).

200-300 seat segment: B787

300+ seats (if needed): B777

Supposedly, Boeing is going for a common type rating for the 787/777 so that would be 3 fleet types covering the 70 to 300+ seat range for mainline (5 covering 50 to 300+ if PDT/PSA were absorbed into mainline).

Jim

 

[qwerty]

In fact, watch for Mesa and US to get further into bed together - at least on the ground side. The days of split airport operations may be coming to an end.

Colgan is not a Mesa product - it's an independent company based outside Washington, D.C. All of their flights operated as US Airways Express are operated at-risk on a pro-rate basis, so every time one of their US-coded flights takes off, US Airways just gets to count the cash. For that reason, and the fact that they provide some vital short-hop links in the Northeast, US isn't about to get rid of them.

Ditto for Air Midwest - all those subsidized EAS props are guaranteed moneymakers for US Airways. They even run a couple unsubsidized routes - RDU-CHS/ORF come to mind. Every time one of those ZV birds goes wheels-up, US gets paid a franchise fee.

Same for the Trans States E145s that are left on US East. It's at-risk flying.

I don't think RAH has any stake in US Airways. The Chautauqua lift is standard fee-for-departure, but pulling them down would require someone else to fill in - does Air Whiskey have 25 CRJs sitting around, or can they acquire them quickly, to replace the CHQ lift?

I think the Mesa exclusive contract for US West is through 2010 or 2012.

 

[700UW]

US/East abrogated the Mesa Contract, I don't see US and Mesa getting back into bed.

 

[FutureUScapt]

US/East abrogated the Mesa Contract, I don't see US and Mesa getting back into bed.

Me either, the only reason the CR9s are over here are because the old management got rid of so many 737s that they needed something to replace them.

 

[qwerty]

Think ground...

 

[john john]

Me either, the only reason the CR9s are over here are because the old management got rid of so many 737s that they needed something to replace them.

Air Wisconsin is planning on getting CRJ900 they are here to stay.