Eagle, PSA, and Piedmont

[nycbusdriver]

F-27s or YS11s for Piedmont?

Too old translates to maintenance nightmares.

Believe me. I know. I resemble that remark.

 

[SparrowHawk]

Take the "S" from PAS and the "P" from Piedmont.

Add it to Eagle and call them "SPEAGLE"

 

[gabby]

Why not "B American".

The "B" is for B scale wages.

 

[algflyr]

The one painted airplane is a CRJ700. They aren't going anywhere. 30% less fuel burn than the EMB 170. They are keeping some 145's. like the CRJ 200's.

There are two planes in the pictures. I'm pretty sure one is an Embraer... It's in the last pic... N928AE

 

[FWAAA]

Those are very good questions. I think sadly, they are all being set up to go the way of Comair. It looks as though the"New American" will become somewhat of a paper airline after the merger in the domestic feed area. The pilots just signed an agreement that allows something to the tune of 75% of the domestic flying to be outsourced. Hope to be wrong, but look at Piedmont. A carrier that could be doing some very lucrative flying but as thier planes come up for inspection they are not being replaced. While it would be nice to see them flying new airplanes I don't think it is anywhere in the plan.

The bolded portion is completely not accurate. In December, the AA pilots signed a contract permitting AA to fly roughly the same proportion of 2-class RJs as US and DL (and probably UA). More recently, the pilot MOU made small changes to the permitted numbers of 2-class RJs, but the end result is abou 1,000 mainline planes and, eventually, about 400 max 2-class 76 seaters. The vast majority of ASMs (domestic and int'l) will still be flown by mainline planes and pilots.

I think Eagle is in for a change. They are the ones in Bk. plus they have 118 emb 50 seaters. 79 less than 50 seaters. I can see the smaller jets going away. Don't buy into management not yet having plans made up. PDT/PSA miraculously had TA's signed recently. Eagles smaller airplanes will be traded for larger ones. Where they go us anyone's guess. But look for places that have overlap and you will see consolidation and either larger RJ's or a mix of mainline aircraft.
Eagle will most likely shrink. But there is a potential for growth when competition heats up between delta/American/united. Some new cities will be added.

Eagle has already returned most of its 37 seaters and the rest depart the fleet this year. The 44 seaters are already slated to be short-timers and the remaining 50 seaters will, of course, be the last to depart the fleet. Eagle has already contracted with Republic to acquire 53 E175s configured in 2-classes and they begin arriving in June or July. More orders are obviously on the way.

They are going to have to. Delta is starting it now. How many regional airlines today are going to lease new airplanes and have 20 years of payments but only 5 or 10 year contracts. It's suicide. Delta is leading the way with purchasing the airframes then placing them where they can be operated for the cheapest.
Regional airlines are only going to be operators of the airplanes, they aren't going to own them or lease them.
Expect US Airways to trade in Eagles 135/145's for EMB 175's.

Eagle is already returning the 135s (37 seaters) and the 44 seaters will be gone in a year or two, so Eagle is already modifying its fleet - it won't take Doug Parker and US to achieve what's already in the works.

AA owned all the 37-50 seat Embraers and was able to reduce the debt on those planes substantially in Ch 11 (overall, by about half).

 

[FM2436]

Interesting Piedmont Route Map. As expected, PIedmont is focused in the northeast and mid-atlantic flying dash-8 into 49 airports. With a fleet of ATR 72s or Q400s, Piedmont could guaranty domination of the the regional feed into the new American Airlines in the northeast and mid-atlantic region. Also interesting to note Piedmont performs ground handling at 33 other airports.

http://www.piedmont-airlines.com/routes.shtml

 

[dash8roa]

Interesting Piedmont Route Map. As expected, PIedmont is focused in the northeast and mid-atlantic flying dash-8 into 49 airports. With a fleet of ATR 72s or Q400s, Piedmont could guaranty domination of the the regional feed into the new American Airlines in the northeast and mid-atlantic region. Also interesting to note Piedmont performs ground handling at 33 other airports.

http://www.piedmont-airlines.com/routes.shtml

I don't think airways has any plans for expanding Piedmont. The fleet has been shrinking for years and while saying they are looking for used aircraft and ATR made a demo visit to SBY, nothing has happened except for base closings over the years and a dwindling fleet.
There does not seem to be a demand for turbo props among the major airlines in this country with only a few Q-400's sold and ATR has not sold any frames to the majors in many years.
While analysts in the airline field extol the virtues of the turbo prop, the airlines are not listening.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I don't think airways has any plans for expanding Piedmont. The fleet has been shrinking for years and while saying they are looking for used aircraft and ATR made a demo visit to SBY, nothing has happened except for base closings over the years and a dwindling fleet.
There does not seem to be a demand for turbo props among the major airlines in this country with only a few Q-400's sold and ATR has not sold any frames to the majors in many years.
While analysts in the airline field extol the virtues of the turbo prop, the airlines are not listening.

Even though turboprops make perfect sense in some markets, many passengers are turned off when they see propellers. It makes no difference to them that it may be a brand new, state-of-the-art airplane compared to the ragged out 737 (which they think is a 747) they just got off of. It has propellers, it's a Piper Cub, and it's dangerous and cheap in their mind. Perception is everything, especially to the leisure flyers (the Kettles.) When they're ticketed on a turboprop, they rarely know it ahead of time, and they can be heard complaining very loudly that they don't like getting on that "propeller plane."

Personally, I would rather fly on a Q400 (or even a Dash 8-200) than crawl into an EMB-145.

 

[signals]

I heard something about MQ that was both shocking but not surprising. Locally, I heard a RUMOR-meaning word around the airport-that the Eagle will be outsourced to service other airlines. Since contracts are up, MQ might bid on Delta Connection and United Express. I also heard that they may underbid Piedmont for the US/AA account.

 

[LGA / 037]

Does anyone know if the MOU or if the change of control would even allow PDT to fly a prop that holds more than 69 customers?

 

[robbedagain]

signals... that would not come as a shocker given a few yrs ago in abe express jet underscored piedmont for the ramp only to abandon it less than a yr later if eagle does ground handling for carriers i wonder if they would keep it or abandon it like express jet

 

[FLYUSAIRWAYS]

Merge Eagle,PSA, and Piedmont into one NEW Huge Express Network and rebrand it.
"AMERICAN METROJET".

 

[Redneck]

Ohhhhh... like an airline within and airline!

Like SONG or TED!

or maybe

MENSTRAL CRAMPED JET

B scale wages and management will get big $$$$$ bonuses $$$$$

Brilliant!!!

 

[AirwAr]

Merge Eagle,PSA, and Piedmont into one NEW Huge Express Network and rebrand it.
"AMERICAN METROJET".

It already has a brand name...any regional operating for AA is an "American Eagle" flight.

Now if you're talking about spinning those regionals off into their own company, it absolutely won't have "American" in the name.