As an airine/commercial airliner enthusiast, I am genuinely very excited to see this aircraft "in person" and have a good look around inside. It's a really neat airliner that can serve alot of missions, short hop and longer haul, with a great comfort level. It looks like the 170 and its larger siblings will be a great product. It's almost as if the family were designed for US Airways purposes.
It's a tragedy that it will not be flown as a mainline product, and even more so that its being used to destroy not only US Airways but eventually every other US major (though US the most due to our bizarre route structure).
There's obviously some devious plan in the works (as usual), otherwise this plane would have just been another US Airways plane, operated by US Airways employees (
what a concept!). There would be a negotiated pay scale for pilots competitive with CRJ700-F100 pay sclaes. Regular F/As would work it with some concessions like no premium pay, cleaning of a/c, longer, more productive duty days etc while on EMB equiptment. We would have made it work to preserve the jobs and help the company. The Eagle contract is an insult and was forced upon us, conviniently hidden in a vague contract as an afterthought.
Jobs would have been saved, time, effort and money would have been saved, and the aircraft would have been operated by people who want the company to succeed. US would have had a huge competitive advantage (one they previously enjoyed) by flying a comfortable, mainline plane into "RJ" markets. The plane could have opened new markets in the midwest (even mountain west) that wouldnt support larger equiptment.
Costs would have been saved by having a single type from 70-100+ seats. As the North American launch customer, we'd of been ahead of the game, holding our own against other airlines RJs and LCCs. A premium cabin could be added for our frequent flyers, even drawing customers from other airlines tired of CRJs. We could also market the fact that there are no middle seats in the cabin. Our Airbus fleet could be used to take advantage of our Star/United partnerships, expanding into the West Coast and South America where we previously had little presence, and of course the Carribbean where we are strong. 737s could be replaced by the newer, more effiecient, and lower cost E195s with no scope issue.
New training facilities, management, supervisors, human resouces personell would not need to be hired, wasting more money. There would be a less divisive attitude at a company where we already have too many affiliates offering little consistency and zero flexibility and teamwork.
Oh, well, someone else will figure it out. Never old US Airways, the airline equivalent of a dying old man who still demands a carton of cigarettes a day. JetBlue will use this aircraft wisely and will take over what even they call "old USAir markets."
Some of you younger folks, remember the singer Tiffany from the 80's? She had that song "Could've been so beautiful, could've been..."
🙄
