Rj Capacity Purchases

[ISP]

Title: Manager RJ Billing
Reference Number: 204517
Department: Express
Location: Arlington, VA

Minimum Qualifications
Bachelors of Science Degree in General Business or Accounting and five years work experience in contract management and/or financial analysis. Must have knowledge of general accounting and accounts payable. Must be proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel. Must have the ability to work independently, organize duties, and meet deadlines under demanding time constraints.

Preferred Qualifications
Three years airline experience. Knowledge of databases such as Access, General Ledger Systems and Mainframe Systems such as Sabre. Experience in budgeting and exposure to Hyperion Pillar or Planning highly desirable. Ability to perform monthly variance analyses of budget vs. actual. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required. Desired qualifications include knowledge of Sabre, Walker, EFIS, VMS, TSO, TPX, CATs, Hyperion Pillar and FATs as well as Excel, Access and Word.

Duties
Management of monthly payments to regional jet carriers totaling $45 million per month. Process includes verification of model statistics, accuracy of formulas, monitoring contractual compliance of each billed item, verification of amounts billed and required support documentation. Manage and oversee additional phases of regional jet payments including statistical settlements, final settlements and true up of pass through and reimbursable expenses. Maintain communication with senior management levels of the regional jet carriers issues related to the monthly pre-bills, statistical settlements, final settlements or reimbursable expenses. Prepare and keep outstanding RJ settlements current. Prepare weekly wires for fuel payments to Mesa Airlines.

Money that should belong to US

 

[700UW]

In the year 2003 US paid Mesa $232,000,000 for 50 RJs flying in US livery.

 

[the turtle]

Hey 700, I just received an extra copy of Mesa's 2004 annual report...would you like it?

PM me.

 

[Light Years]

I just flew on a USX flight on Mesa, and a monkey in a nun's outfit would have made a better impression on the customers than this F/A did. The chick kept on saying "USAir" (no ways, no Express) which was annoying, wore a brown coat over her uniform the whole flight, and muttered into the PA something about Flight Fund, which I believe is America West's FF program. Upon landing she got back on the PA and said "Thanks for flying USAir, we hope you enjoyed our flight as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride. Remember, no one loves your business or your money like USAir." I wanted to pull her hair. I'm sure she'd be great in an emergency. On top of that, the plane smelled like urine and had trash in the seat pockets... are they not expected to tidy the cabin between flights like everyone else? It was absolutely infuriating and disheartening to think that US pays them to impersonate them and then doesn't hold them to even the lowest service standards.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Can U get out of its contract with Mesa on its own terms (the terms of the contract itself)? Or would it have to rely on the B-court?

 

[Headhunter]

Title: Manager RJ Billing
Reference Number: 204517
Department: Express
Location: Arlington, VA

Minimum Qualifications
Bachelors of Science Degree in General Business or Accounting and five years work experience in contract management and/or financial analysis. Must have knowledge of general accounting and accounts payable. Must be proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel. Must have the ability to work independently, organize duties, and meet deadlines under demanding time constraints.

Preferred Qualifications
Three years airline experience. Knowledge of databases such as Access, General Ledger Systems and Mainframe Systems such as Sabre. Experience in budgeting and exposure to Hyperion Pillar or Planning highly desirable. Ability to perform monthly variance analyses of budget vs. actual. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required. Desired qualifications include knowledge of Sabre, Walker, EFIS, VMS, TSO, TPX, CATs, Hyperion Pillar and FATs as well as Excel, Access and Word.

Duties
Management of monthly payments to regional jet carriers totaling $45 million per month. Process includes verification of model statistics, accuracy of formulas, monitoring contractual compliance of each billed item, verification of amounts billed and required support documentation. Manage and oversee additional phases of regional jet payments including statistical settlements, final settlements and true up of pass through and reimbursable expenses. Maintain communication with senior management levels of the regional jet carriers issues related to the monthly pre-bills, statistical settlements, final settlements or reimbursable expenses. Prepare and keep outstanding RJ settlements current. Prepare weekly wires for fuel payments to Mesa Airlines.

Money that should belong to US

[post="241847"][/post]​

This is a MANAGER position? Sounds like a glorified bookkeeper to me!
Way to keep costs low!

 

[FWAAA]

Can U get out of its contract with Mesa on its own terms (the terms of the contract itself)? Or would it have to rely on the B-court?

[post="242149"][/post]​

Don't know what the contract says about it, but Ch 11 allows debtors to reject any executory contract for any reason or no reason. For the life of me, I can't believe that the Mesa contract has not been rejected. Perhaps U is planning to knock Mesa down on price.

 

[Light Years]

I'm sure U could drop Mesa in bankrupcy, but unfortunately they operate 50-60 RJs for U, not counting Air Midwest. With the EJet and CRJ deliveries stalled, the SJ/RJ growth/mainline replacement is on hold, even if it wasn't, they wouldn't be replacing them with a decent operation just yet. They are sadly the largest RJ operation at U, in fact probably the largest Express operation. The cheapest is of course the favored one, so it becomes the bigger one even if it's the worst provider.

US really can't afford to be paying other airlines to do thier flying, which these carriers use to buy more RJs to operate for US's competitors. By the same token, it can't afford to buy it's own and is terrified of having a single airline with leverage anyhow, and it can't afford to lose the lift or to release 60 more RJs to the competition.

One would think with the PIT shrinkage they could get rid of one of the affiliates. Trans States operates 17 ERJs and Chautauqua operates 20 or so as USX, so they would likely go first due to scale. Service and reliability have nothing to do with it, just cost. More likely, the flying would just be shifted than given away. Cheapo US never saw an RJ it didn't like. If your Uncle Bob had one in the back yard missing a wing US would give you some blue paint and a tidy profit to join "the franchise."

 

[the turtle]

Can U get out of its contract with Mesa on its own terms (the terms of the contract itself)? Or would it have to rely on the B-court?

[post="242149"][/post]​

yes. U has yet to affirm Mesa's current contract, so I guess they could tell us to go away. There are also instances where Mesa is in default of the contract, ie. gross FAA violations, 3 or more days of zero operations, etc.

I don't have it in front of me, but I believe the ERJ's can be phased out in 2008, with 1 year prior notice. The CRJ's run through @ 2012.

My read on the annual report, plus recent statements made by management, seem to suggest that Mesa would like to pull down their exposure to U, however, with over 55 jets now flying for U plus another 5-10 that Mesa's contractually obligated to add to the system it appears unlikely. (My appoligies if this last paragraph reads like a A-320 diatribe!)

 

[FM2436]

yes. U has yet to affirm Mesa's current contract, so I guess they could tell us to go away. There are also instances where Mesa is in default of the contract, ie. gross FAA violations, 3 or more days of zero operations, etc.

I don't have it in front of me, but I believe the ERJ's can be phased out in 2008, with 1 year prior notice. The CRJ's run through @ 2012.

My read on the annual report, plus recent statements made by management, seem to suggest that Mesa would like to pull down their exposure to U, however, with over 55 jets now flying for U plus another 5-10 that Mesa's contractually obligated to add to the system it appears unlikely. (My appoligies if this last paragraph reads like a A-320 diatribe!)

[post="242188"][/post]​

But wait a minute. MESA was just awarded Regional Airline of the year by Air Transport World!

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050126/law032_1.html

 

[sfb]

As Light Years mentions in the later post, Mesa's not going anywhere because (1) they're the lowest-cost RJ provider for US Airways and (2) US with its current business plan can't afford to lose the amount of regional lift being provided by Mesa. Where is a company in US's current situation going to find someone to replace them? Heck, United fired Mesa a few years back and had to turn to them to provide some of the replacement flying for ACA. It's telling that United was desperate enough to hire Shuttle America.

 

[Stick-n-Rudder]

I could be wrong but it was my understanding that US owns and leases a majority of the CRJ's operated by Mesa under US banner. This dates to the original LOA's that permited US to operate first 35 then an additional 35 RJ's.(early 1999 Wolfe/Gangwal?) About two years ago Johnny O wanted to do the Indepenance Air thing and sent a memo to his ALPA unit to come up with a proposal for operating B737's. From what I can recall US sent thier power punch lawyers to Johnny O. and told him he would not be getting any B737's and become an indepent LCC with US's CRJ's. <_<

 

[700UW]

US does not own nor lease any RJs for Mesa. Mesa leases their RJs from various lessors and US Airways reimburses the lease cost as per the capacity purchase agreement.

 

[732guy]

I'm sure U could drop Mesa in bankrupcy, but unfortunately they operate 50-60 RJs for U, not counting Air Midwest. With the EJet and CRJ deliveries stalled, the SJ/RJ growth/mainline replacement is on hold, even if it wasn't, they wouldn't be replacing them with a decent operation just yet. They are sadly the largest RJ operation at U, in fact probably the largest Express operation. The cheapest is of course the favored one, so it becomes the bigger one even if it's the worst provider.

US really can't afford to be paying other airlines to do thier flying, which these carriers use to buy more RJs to operate for US's competitors. By the same token, it can't afford to buy it's own and is terrified of having a single airline with leverage anyhow, and it can't afford to lose the lift or to release 60 more RJs to the competition.

One would think with the PIT shrinkage they could get rid of one of the affiliates. Trans States operates 17 ERJs and Chautauqua operates 20 or so as USX, so they would likely go first due to scale. Service and reliability have nothing to do with it, just cost. More likely, the flying would just be shifted than given away. Cheapo US never saw an RJ it didn't like. If your Uncle Bob had one in the back yard missing a wing US would give you some blue paint and a tidy profit to join "the franchise."

[post="242155"][/post]​

Light years, what day/flight/market was this experience?

 

[Winglet]

The profitable carriers don't have RJ feed.