Republic Purchase Shuttle America

[airbiiguy]

shuttle has to be one of the worst carriers in the exsistence of mankind.

 

[hharotz]

Reliability??? MDA? Your kidding right? -Cape

[post="268674"][/post]​

MDA has become quite reliable actually...the past 5 months or so have run pretty smoothly.

I would rank the regionals in the following order based on operational reliability:

1) MDA (if you even count it as a regional)
2) Chautauqua
=BIG GAP=
3) Piedmont
4) Transtates (suprisingly mediocre, I attribute it to the fact that they do very little PHL flying)
=GAP=
5) PSA (they used to be so good with the D38s, they have really gone downhill)
6) Mesa (getting better)
=GIANT GAP=
7) Sh!ttle America (they even aound anymore?)
=GAP=
8) Colgan
9) Air Midwest

IMO, the only acceptable performance has been from CHQ and MDA.

 

[Rico]

Doesn't America west's scope allow aircraft the size of the E-190 as well...? Mesa operates the CRJ-900 for HP...

 

[USA320Pilot]

Rico:

My comment was pertaining to legacy carriers. In regard to scope, I believe the America West contract is no longer available for public review on the ALPA website. The US Airways pilot contract has specific language for the EMB-190 and is not an RJ seat requirement.

I think, I'm not sure, America West Express does operate CRJ-900s.

Once the merger is complete and a new seniority list is obtained, then a Joint Negotiating Committee from both pilot groups will be appointed. A new CBA will need to be negotiated before the two companies can fully integrate pilot work forces, thus the scope clause will need to be re-negotiated at this time.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[Rico]

Oh yeah, I know they (Mesa) operates CRJ-900's for AWA, but that does not necessarily mean that the AWA scope allows the larger E-190's. My point was that 90 seaters are a reality already at AWA, it is not a stretch of the imagination to see such operated by a combination of the two...

 

[funguy2]

As long as "all along" means since pretty recently, I agree. Going back more than a few months, I don't think all Republic's efforts to get Republic Airways off the ground was some sort of smokescreen to hide their true intentions. I think they finally gave up on "Plan A" and Shuttle America became "Plan B".

Allow me to clarify: What I meant by "all along" was since Wexford became the controlling force behind Shuttle America a few years ago, and they control Chautauqua, which was placed into the Republic Holdings company also controlled by Wexford... It was probably in the long term plan to get Shuttle into the Republic Holdings company all along... from Wexford's perspective.

Clearly, Shuttle America operating EMB-170/190 was a "Plan B" to the newly certificated Republic Airways "Plan A". But I can envision Wexford's desire to have all of its airline holdings (i.e. all 3 - Chautauqua, Republic and Shuttel America) under one holding company... Regardless of whether its Republic or Shuttle America flying the EMB-170/190.

Since it appears as though the Republic certificate is not occuring, or not occuring fast enough, they may have moved forward the integration of Shuttle to the Holdings Company to make everything work...

 

[BoeingBoy]

funguy,

I'm guilty of reading your remark too narrowly, thinking only of Republic's point of view. Forgive me....

Jim

 

[sfb]

Allow me to clarify: What I meant by "all along" was since Wexford became the controlling force behind Shuttle America a few years ago, and they control Chautauqua, which was placed into the Republic Holdings company also controlled by Wexford... It was probably in the long term plan to get Shuttle into the Republic Holdings company all along... from Wexford's perspective.

Actually, I will disagree a bit here, if subtly. Wexford had purchased Shuttle America out of bankruptcy towards the end of 2001; Republic already had been organized as an airline holding company (owned by Wexford) and its principal operating subsidiary at the time was Chautauqua. Now, the first prospectus for Republic Airways Holdings was filed with the SEC in March, 2002. I suspect that if Wexford had intended for Shuttle America to be spun off as part of Republic, it would have done so at the time.

My speculation is that Wexford did intend to package Shuttle and Chautauqua together when they bought Shuttle out of bankruptcy. I would imagine that they subsequently decided that a regional carrier which operated only RJ's and no props would be a more attractive prospect for potential investors, so they chose to leave Shuttle out of Republic at that time. If they had intended all along to use the Shuttle America certificate for larger-than-50-seat aircraft, I doubt they would have gone to the expense of the whole Republic Airline exercise. (Yes, the subsidiary was to be called "Republic Airline" with no "s".)

Clearly, Shuttle America operating EMB-170/190 was a "Plan B" to the newly certificated Republic Airways "Plan A". But I can envision Wexford's desire to have all of its airline holdings (i.e. all 3 - Chautauqua, Republic and Shuttel America) under one holding company... Regardless of whether its Republic or Shuttle America flying the EMB-170/190.

Agreed, this was definitely a "Plan B." But they could have folded Shuttle America into Republic Airways Holdings before it was spun off had they chosen to do so. They did not, which leads me to think there was some other motivation (namely, that they wanted to IPO an all-jet regional airline/holding company). At this point, I think "Republic Airline" is dead although it would not surprise me to see Shuttle America renamed.

Since it appears as though the Republic certificate is not occuring, or not occuring fast enough, they may have moved forward the integration of Shuttle to the Holdings Company to make everything work...

I think that the fines they were paying to AMR were getting expensive, and this needed to happen before MDA could be purchased and before they start flying 170's for Delta Connection (or the fines would probably get even larger). I don't believe they would have "integrated" Shuttle America into Republic otherwise; they would have either shut it down or tried to turn it into another jet-operating regional.

 

[FWAAA]

I think that the fines they were paying to AMR were getting expensive, and this needed to happen before MDA could be purchased and before they start flying 170's for Delta Connection (or the fines would probably get even larger). I don't believe they would have "integrated" Shuttle America into Republic otherwise; they would have either shut it down or tried to turn it into another jet-operating regional.

[post="268986"][/post]​

Former ModerAAtor recently posted that the penalties paid to AMR for operating the 70 seaters were running hundreds of thousands of dollars already, so I suspect this alone lit a fire under someone to accomplish this deal quickly.