US Airways Now Looking to Upgrade Piedmont

[LGA777]

Here's an idea for Piedmont management. The repainting of the Dash 8 fleet has been put off seveal times and some of them look pretty sad. If they have to park aircraft due to crew shortages anyway why not send at least one Dash at a time to the paint shop since there parked anyway ? Probably not realistic as it would make WAY to much sense, silly me !

Regards,

LGA777

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

This contract article is something that ALPA needs open back up if company wants to talk "scope relief" give express props like they should be.
Jets flown by mine line.. ALPA has already “scope reliefâ€￾ a lot of employees out of a job.

This would be the scope clause that allows for contract carriers to fly 90 seat jets, but does not allow a wholly owned to fly a 70 turboprop.

 

[WSurf]

Here's an idea for Piedmont management. The repainting of the Dash 8 fleet has been put off seveal times and some of them look pretty sad. If they have to park aircraft due to crew shortages anyway why not send at least one Dash at a time to the paint shop since there parked anyway ? Probably not realistic as it would make WAY to much sense, silly me !

Regards,

LGA777

First one is in BNA as you type getting painted.

 

[USFlyer]

This would be the scope clause that allows for contract carriers to fly 90 seat jets, but does not allow a wholly owned to fly a 70 turboprop.

Are there really restrictions on turbo props?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Are there really restrictions on turbo props?

Yes, dating back to before Wolfe. Starting with him, management only asked for relaxed restrictions on the number/size of RJ's.

Jim

 

[gizmo_sc]

THIS from www.flightglobal.com

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/...-issue-rfp.html

 

[john john]

They will order with option to cancel and ask for scope relief and play ALPA like a violin

 

[FM2436]

THIS from www.flightglobal.com

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/...-issue-rfp.html

I missed this report. I'm thrilled to read that US Airways/Piedmont are considering both a 50-seat and 70-seat turboprop replacements.

 

[WOpropTrash]

Re: AAA Scope relief

If history is any indication, expect the what's-in-it-for-me guys to hold fast, and not give in, until the company is too broke to buy any newer turboprops.

Does anyone else remember the attempt to bring RJ's to the WO's to replace the old props?, Remember "Any jets on the property will be flown by mainline," and "You guys aren't jet qualified." All this, while the competition had snotty nosed kids flying shiney new RJ's into our feeder stations, taking what were once our PAX. They held steadfast until US was so far in the hole that it was no longer competitive and couldn't buy a kite! Then the nice guys decided, several years too late I might add, that RJ's were needed if the company was to survive. So, the wise ones allowed the contract carries to bring them in. We all know the rest of the story. PSA did finally get RJ's, a little too late, only after their MEC sold out the other WO's and agreed to the J4J joke.

Why would anyone expect anything different now?

 

[dfw79]

The whole Express operation just needs to be rethought. Put together a comprehensive plan to bring it all in house. You have PSA and Piedmont...two ways to go with it...but with the same end result - no more contract carriers.

Make PSA the all jet airline operating all the CRJs (move the Embraers to mainline and be done with it). Piedmont would be the all Dash 8 airline, operating -Q200s, -Q300s, and -Q400s.

The other option would be to operate both airlines in a mix jet/prop fleet and have PSA cover the western US and Piedmont the eastern. Then maybe evaluate getting back into the point-to-point markets throughout the East that US has left over the years that could be done with the RJs or Dash 8s.

Of course a project of this size would be too complicated for Tempe. I agree with what others have said, get Rakesh back. Of course he may not care to leave WorldSpan, but he was the last executive in the last 10 years or so that really want to run US. Better than Uncle Seth, the Big Bad Wolf, Austin-They're Coming to Kill Us-Powers, etc. Lakefield wasn't terrible, but he was a numbers and fundraiser. He was hired to raise the money to fund the merger and did just that. Wolf pissed Gangwal off so he left...no more Wolf, and heck Gangwal is flying the airline anyway I'm sure.

However about the only way things will change is if either the employees take control, or you find some investment banks back East willing to take control. Either way...which was better...the Crystal Palace or the Sand Castle? Granted there really isn't much difference, one just hasn't been set on fire and burned yet (sand to glass).

 

[Elevation]

The whole Express operation just needs to be rethought. Put together a comprehensive plan to bring it all in house. You have PSA and Piedmont...two ways to go with it...but with the same end result - no more contract carriers.

Make PSA the all jet airline operating all the CRJs (move the Embraers to mainline and be done with it). Piedmont would be the all Dash 8 airline, operating -Q200s, -Q300s, and -Q400s.

The other option would be to operate both airlines in a mix jet/prop fleet and have PSA cover the western US and Piedmont the eastern. Then maybe evaluate getting back into the point-to-point markets throughout the East that US has left over the years that could be done with the RJs or Dash 8s.

Of course a project of this size would be too complicated for Tempe. I agree with what others have said, get Rakesh back. Of course he may not care to leave WorldSpan, but he was the last executive in the last 10 years or so that really want to run US. Better than Uncle Seth, the Big Bad Wolf, Austin-They're Coming to Kill Us-Powers, etc. Lakefield wasn't terrible, but he was a numbers and fundraiser. He was hired to raise the money to fund the merger and did just that. Wolf pissed Gangwal off so he left...no more Wolf, and heck Gangwal is flying the airline anyway I'm sure.

However about the only way things will change is if either the employees take control, or you find some investment banks back East willing to take control. Either way...which was better...the Crystal Palace or the Sand Castle? Granted there really isn't much difference, one just hasn't been set on fire and burned yet (sand to glass).

You don't know your airline history if you think any of that will work. Here's some food for thought UAL,ESOP,ACA,Air Whiskey, Delta Comair ASA etc.. google them and get back to us.

 

[DOA@Airport]

Q:Which Airline does all of it's flying?
A: Southwest Airlines

Q: Which airline has been profitable for 3o plus years?
A: Southwest Airlines

In order to make bringing all the flying in house feasable, the company would have to be extremely efficient operationally, which US has not shown the ability to do.

Pay Scales and scope rules would have to be carefully laid out. Career path and such would need to be innovative and fair.

Sheesh, PB, you of all people should know that comparing LUV's business plan and operating model to any network, hub & spoke model is comparing apples to oranges. US needs to make a crucial decision about PDT's future given the age of their aircraft...and admittedly a more fundamental decision about the future of it's feed traffic to the hubs (i.e., the mix and type of wholly-owned, contract, or whatever). But the decision has nothing to do with what LUV is doing.

 

[Sig]

I might be dead wrong on this ...

I have this vision of 70 seats or so Q-400's with a small F/C flying point to point all over the smaller markets on the East Coast.
...

Does a rebirth of the Florida Shuttle ring a bell?

Management has acknowledged that a two-class configuration (while it would honor the scope clause) wouldn't make economic sense.

In other words, that's probably a brilliant idea.

And the P2P? Well, shoot. That could probably hammer the contract overlap, maintain control of the product, and efficiently bring in more pax from the dirt roads to the mainline interstates. We could rebuild passenger trust in the HHH flying alone.

In other words, that's probably a brilliant idea.

Somebody somewhere will implement this model first, and make the mostest firstest... I doubt it will be us.

 

[SegmentKing]

Friend at Bombardier mentioned US is looking at used Dash 8 Q300s and -301s.. only cause my airline is hunting for them too!

Bring back the Q200s to Piedmont!

 

[ALCARLOS]

The whole Express operation just needs to be rethought. Put together a comprehensive plan to bring it all in house. You have PSA and Piedmont...two ways to go with it...but with the same end result - no more contract carriers.

Sorry, but contract carriers are absolutely necessary to provide the competition to keep the labor costs under control.