US Airways Ready To Fly Embraer 170s Under MidAtlantic Banner

[gilbertguy]

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On 5/1/2003 7:01:55 PM Smoke and Mirrors wrote:



US Airways is poised to begin flying Embraer 170s/175s as part of its mainline network through its MidAtlantic Airways division, Senior VP of Employee Relations Jerrold Glass said in Washington yesterday. Glass gave the US Airways pilots credit for understanding“our vision of the product, provided we reach some sort of provision with Embraer,” he told attendees at the Commercial Aviation Events Regional Airline Conference.
The airline is the first U.S. carrier to negotiate regional pay, work rules and benefits across all parts of the company, Glass said. With its pilots approving up to 465 regional jets in thecarrier’s network, US Airways has managed to reverse one of the most restrictive scope clauses in the industry. Originally, the carrier was limited to 35 RJs with a maximumof 69 seats, said John Walsh of Walsh Aviation. US Airways plans to break its RJs into three groups — 150 aircraft with a 44-seat maximum, 140 45- to 50- seat aircraft and about 175 aircraft in the 51-to 70-seat range — Walsh said. Furloughed pilots in the Jets for Jobs program must fly about 50% of the jets in the 45- seat range. Most of the larger jet flying is slated for MidAtlantic.
Glass recognized American Eagle as setting a new benchmark in larger RJ pilot pay, explaining the carrier’s pay differential from 50- to 70-seaters was roughly 5 1/2%, compared with Comair’s 12% gap. US Airways plans to start MidAtlantic operations during the fourth quarter, Glass said.


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Has US placed even one order for these planes yet? Or any RJ''s?

 

[Smoke and Mirrors]

US Airways is poised to begin flying Embraer 170s/175s as part of its mainline network through its MidAtlantic Airways division, Senior VP of Employee Relations Jerrold Glass said in Washington yesterday. Glass gave the US Airways pilots credit for understanding“our vision of the product, provided we reach some sort of provision with Embraer,â€￾ he told attendees at the Commercial Aviation Events Regional Airline Conference.
The airline is the first U.S. carrier to negotiate regional pay, work rules and benefits across all parts of the company, Glass said. With its pilots approving up to 465 regional jets in thecarrier’s network, US Airways has managed to reverse one of the most restrictive scope clauses in the industry. Originally, the carrier was limited to 35 RJs with a maximumof 69 seats, said John Walsh of Walsh Aviation. US Airways plans to break its RJs into three groups — 150 aircraft with a 44-seat maximum, 140 45- to 50- seat aircraft and about 175 aircraft in the 51-to 70-seat range — Walsh said. Furloughed pilots in the Jets for Jobs program must fly about 50% of the jets in the 45- seat range. Most of the larger jet flying is slated for MidAtlantic.
Glass recognized American Eagle as setting a new benchmark in larger RJ pilot pay, explaining the carrier’s pay differential from 50- to 70-seaters was roughly 5 1/2%, compared with Comair’s 12% gap. US Airways plans to start MidAtlantic operations during the fourth quarter, Glass said.

 

[USFlyer]

My guess is the first 50 or so will be leased from GECAS, which already has firm orders in place. Also, SWISS just deferred some/all of their orders, so I''m sure Embraer has delivery slots.

 

[gilbertguy]

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On 5/1/2003 7:40:48 PM tadjr wrote:

I saw something at work today (I think it was in this weeks USAirways News) that said a very large order was going to be placed in the coming weeks. I will try to see if I can find where it was and post it here. I know its been rumored before, but this was something the company put out and not from "an internet chat board".

It just seems to me that orders as large as this would have started much earlier so MDA would be up-and-running by years end.....I haven''t seen one bleep in any news for such a large order of aircraft, and wouldn''t U be speeding up its re-designation of cities to be ''express'' status by now?

 

[tadjr]

I saw something at work today (I think it was in this weeks USAirways News) that said a very large order was going to be placed in the coming weeks. I will try to see if I can find where it was and post it here. I know its been rumored before, but this was something the company put out and not from "an internet chat board".

 

[DCAflyer]

Maybe Dave will attach some of the fuselages from A/C parked at MHV to very large birds and we'll fly under the banner "Flinstone Airways."

 

[1ab]

Hey Gilbert unless your contract requires more notice I belive U can make any station "express" with as little as 2 weeks notice.

 

[WSurf]

Eagle Pay Rates and Work Rulez???? Thought they were really bad!!!

 

[delldude]

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On 5/3/2003 8:22:47 AM sabre wrote:

RJ hub flying is a model that continues to fail. American can''t make a red cent with the RJ''s and ATR''s flying out of hubs.

Once again, reinventing the wheel. Until we forecast the traveling public correctly we will be destined to get the snot beat out of us by the SWA of this world.


love

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if american can''t make it work,i guarantee you our saavy upper management won''t either!

 

[delldude]

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On 5/1/2003 7:53:34 PM gilbertguy wrote:

It just seems to me that orders as large as this would have started much earlier so MDA would be up-and-running by years end.....I haven''t seen one bleep in any news for such a large order of aircraft, and wouldn''t U be speeding up its re-designation of cities to be ''express'' status by now?

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i read somewhere someone else bellied up on a big RJ order making a bunch available.
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[sabre]

RJ hub flying is a model that continues to fail. American can''t make a red cent with the RJ''s and ATR''s flying out of hubs.

Once again, reinventing the wheel. Until we forecast the traveling public correctly we will be destined to get the snot beat out of us by the SWA of this world.


love

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Dude... yes, that order was from SWISS -a fun airline to fly in First Class (procurred by very generous U ff program), but one that might not be around much longer

ARGH!

RJs at AMR are NOT the same as RJs at U!
RJs at U are NOT the same as would-be RJs at SWA!

U isn't and can't be AMR or SWA.

CLT isn't DFW and PIT isn't ORD and PHL isn't JFK!

Finally, routes to and from CLT ARE NOT the same as routes to and from ATL.

U's 737s should be and should've been RJs all along.

If you want to exercise market power in the markets that U dominates, U CANT do it with 737s. U is flooding its own markets.

SWA isn't going to fly into markets that U dominates with frequent RJ service to CLT, PHL, PIT, LGA, DCA and BOS, ESPECIALLY with FF benefits and code share convenience on flights to ORD and connections around the GLOBE!

IF U proves a market with RJs and SWA says "hey that looks good," then U can put in lower CASM Bs or As and defend the market.

Hey, it might not work.... but it's smarter than anything else Ive been hearing from the industry... and 'hate' him as much as you like.... Siegel is SMART.

The stuff about labor and class and compensation are important issues that I think are very troubling... but they are MUCH bigger than U's corporate suite. If you think that the culture in the USA is nicer and friendlier than what U's been doing... wake up... the danger is bigger and badder than you think!

 

[a320av8r]

What urks me about the people on this board is that they rant and rave about U not doing anything different. We never "lead the industry", etc. We have management with no direction, etc. We do have good management with good business sense. Because they won't pay exhorbinant salaries that the market won't bear, they are not labor friendly? They are here to make a profit whether we like it or not. Labor friendly is what got us into this mess in the first place. Colodny operated under a regulated environment and bought labor off to keep the peace. Those of us who merged from PI and PSA could not believe the perks the USAir folks had. We came to enjoy them very much but all along knew they wouldn't last. They didn't.

Now we are doing something with a new airplane, it is filling the void in a niche. We will probably be able to corner the market in this range. WN operates about a 61% load factor (about 80 psgrs/flt). A 78 seat aircraft that is comfortable and efficient should be able to blow them out of the water. The EB-175/185 is not a stretched 145, it is a totally new aircraft, go to www.embraer.com to see it.

The hubs are being realigned, PIT may or may not get on board, that's up to the elected officials. Routes are being redone to better suite the demand. I can tell by using RDU as an example, instead of operating all types of AC now we operate just the 737 on mainline. Don't need the equipment and stores for Airbus there (saves money). Terminals are being right sized so we are not paying for assets we don't use.

These are just a few examples and I'm sure you can look past you hatred of ANY management and see the good things happening.

Lets give it a try and stop fighting amongst ourselves.

 

[Mike W]

Yep,
We've found our niche all right....America's largest regional airline.Didn't someone who was once proclaimed an aviation genius say "You can't shrink yourelf into profitability."

 

[OldpropGuy]

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On 5/3/2003 5:51:13 PM Mike W wrote:

Yep,
We''ve found our niche all right....America''s largest regional airline.Didn''t someone who was once proclaimed an aviation genius say "You can''t shrink yourelf into profitability."

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It''s obvious that this company has always been primarily a large regional airline. The equipment is finally being right-sized!​