Republic?

[jetstewus]

Would someone enlighten me on Republic and what exactly it is. I know one of our contract carriers, Chautauqua, is a Republic Airways Company. I think I have also seen the titles Republic Airlines and Mid-Atlantic mentioned in the same paragraph in some ALPA letters . (I am a furloughed FA but there was always some letter laying around the crewroom about the pilots and what was going on with them.) Now I've read a post here about Chautauqua agreeing to a J4J plan which now means there is no need for Republic Airines? I also know that our former CEO also was involved with the original Republic Airlines somehow.

I'm confused and perhaps I've got it all wrong. Forgive my ignorance, I'm just trying to connect the dots, if there is any connection. Thanks and good luck!

 

[phllax]

Let''s see if this doesn''t clear things up.

The Republic Airlines that Wolf ran was sold to Northwest in the early 80''s. Republic itself was formed in the 70''s from the merger of Southern, North Central and later Hughes Air West.

Republic Airways Holdings is the parent company of Express carrier Chautaqua. It is their intention to start a "scope" buster airline called Reupblic to be based in Kentucky to be flown in US Express colors. It would be similiar to Mesa''s Freedom Airlines division which flies 70 and 90 seat jets for America West Express.

 

[N628AU]

Freedom is now slowly being folded back under the Mesa umbrella, as the new Mesa ALPA contract put all the flying on a single seniority list. Most interesting is that Duane Worth told CCAIR he would not sign off on any contract that included 90 seat RJ pay rates. Well he did at Mesa less than a year later after putting over 140 pilots in furlough, not to mention all the flight attendants, mechanics, outstation, operations, and support personnel who lost their jobs. He is a real piece of work. I guess when you are cashing $200K a year for NWA 747 captain rates, you kind of lose sight of the little guys. I have no clue how that man can sleep at night.

 

[Chicken Taco]

OK, I may be a little biased as a CHQ captain and union rep, but I think I can shed a little light:

First a little background on our structure. Chautauqua Airlines is owned by Republic Airways Holdings, a management scheme shell corporation. RAH has the same officers, address, and phone as CHQ, but is a separate company if you ask the management. RAH is in turn owned by WexAir LLC, a division of Wexford Holdings, our true owners. Wexford is a $1 million minimum balance private investment house that owns a myriad of other companies. These happen to include Shuttle America and a $3 million DIP loan to Midway.

About a year and a half ago we at CHQ put the original J4J to a vote and voted it down. This was the all-captain-pay, permanent furlough protection, superseniority version of J4J which basically had nothing in it for us and everything for our furloughed mainline bretheren. We knew that a no vote meant no further growth with USAir, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

About 9 months ago RAH announced that they were seeking FAA approval for a company called Republic Airlines, Inc. (RAI). This company is an alter-ego union contract-busting clone of CHQ. According to the official management statement, the purpose of RAI is to obtain the USair J4J business that we voted down. This is no longer relevent as we have now voted on the LOA 83 version of J4J and approved it. However, our management still feels that it''s appropriate to go ahead with RAI. Our current understanding is that U-ALPA will not endorse RAI, and will instead force U to place any J4J aircraft on the existing CHQ certificate, under our Contract.

Let me get to the point, CHQ is currently in very painful and drawn out negotiations with our pilots, and our FA''s are ammendable next month. RAI was simply created as an attempt by management to funnel work away from CHQ and therefore weaken our bargaininag position. It is an alter-ego carrier in every definition. Any support of RAI is a slap in the face to the 1200 union-represented professionals that have kept CHQ running as a top-rated regional for 30 years.

Please spare me the "bad CHQ experience" or "idiot company" etc. posts here. Those kind of replies are missing the point. Somebody was looking for info on Republic and why it''s bad, so I''ve laid it our here..

..CT