SKW Portland Brasilia Base Closure

[Autothrust Blue]

The Pacific Northwest system is going away effective September. Fortunately, as I understand things, there are places for these guys to go elsewhere in the system.

"Today SkyWest announced that certain routes will be discontinued due to lack of profitability and increased costs, effective with the Sept. 2, 2014 United schedule change. As you’re aware, recent regulatory changes within the industry have increased total operating costs, putting additional pressure on underperforming markets. We continue to evaluate all markets on a regular basis with our partners to ensure we’re able to maintain sustainable and profitable flying.

This reduction will affect all EMB Captains and EMB First Officers based in PDX. These decisions are not easy and we will do all we can to make this transition as smooth as possible on you and your families. With growth and opportunity throughout the system, crews will have options as outlined in the Pilot Policy Manual SP 3022. Moving Expense Reimbursement (MER) will apply according to Company Policy Manual SP 65. Please note that relocation incentive is not applicable as there is no location designated for incentive."

I'll be dipped - maybe we are gonna get rid of this thing soon. And maybe @Cal Goat will have the pleasure of flying me home in his CRJ, when I fly the last one to the boneyard.

 

[z987k]

So are they going to fly a CRJ to LMT, OTH, EUG, MFD, RDD, ACV etc? Because it seems like that would be less profitable.

 

[ChasenSFO]

So are they going to fly a CRJ to LMT, OTH, EUG, MFD, RDD, ACV etc? Because it seems like that would be less profitable.

I think EUG-PDX was dropped when I was still working for OO a few years back, but SFO-EUG/MFR is operated by CRJ-200s/700s and they're often packed, OTH gets a CRJ-200 from SFO every summer to take the excess denied pax from the severe weight restrictions, and left over bags since usually all the luggage AND golf clubs won't fit in the pit of the Bro, ACV was tried with CRJ-200s...they weren't a good fit, diverted much more often than the bro(higher approach speed?). As for the others, LMT is going away in June, RDD could probably support 2-3 daily RJs, ACV I guess will just have to go RJ. ACV and RDD won't go away, UA flew 737s to RDD back in the day(yeah, I know they flew them to places like VIS too..but RDD is actually a good feed).

 

[MikeD]

I'll be dipped - maybe we are gonna get rid of this thing soon. And maybe @Cal Goat will have the pleasure of flying me home in his CRJ, when I fly the last one to the boneyard.

To the boneyard of Ameriflight.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

So are they going to fly a CRJ to LMT, OTH, EUG, MFD, RDD, ACV etc? Because it seems like that would be less profitable.

What @ChasenSFO said. The real kicker is our empty weights plus making the passengers heavier on paper. I doubt we'll ever stop going to ACV and RDD (different equipment, mayhaps) as there's just no other way into or out of town, but when you can only take 24-25 folks plus bags, it starts to be a more dubious proposition. We're also not doing SBA out of LAX this summer (which makes not a lot of sense to me since efficiency-wise, we slaughter the jet on that leg, and they're normally dropping the valet bags when we show up with our beta after leaving at the same time); UA is upgauging it to a CRJ-200. I guess we go to SAN, CLD, SMX, SBP, BFL, FAT, and YUM out of LAX.

(Redding is cool, yo.)

There are a whole bunch of guys on reserve this coming month (me included) that normally wouldn't be due to the various reshuffling plus San Francisco being awful.

 

[DE727UPS]

Best of luck to you. Reserve when overstaffed can be a pretty sweet gig.

 

[etflies]

I think EUG-PDX was dropped when I was still working for OO a few years back, but SFO-EUG/MFR is operated by CRJ-200s/700s and they're often packed, OTH gets a CRJ-200 from SFO every summer to take the excess denied pax from the severe weight restrictions, and left over bags since usually all the luggage AND golf clubs won't fit in the pit of the Bro, ACV was tried with CRJ-200s...they weren't a good fit, diverted much more often than the bro(higher approach speed?).

We still do MFR on the Bro but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go to the 200 once or twice a day. When the weather goes down there and it needs an alternate, the passenger count gets cut down quite a bit.

Sorry to hear about the PDX base, the flying up there was beautiful and the folks were (are) great. Between the 200s coming out of the desert, the increased hiring/upgrading on the arrr jay and the Bro flying being drawn down (SFO runway silliness not withstanding) it makes one wonder what the end game will be over the next several months.

 

[Cal Goat]

I hadn't heard about the SBA thing. I hope that means SFO RJ crews will get to fly there too. That's my biggest sore spot from leaving the Bro. I'd overnight in SBA as often as they'd send me.

 

[ChasenSFO]

We still do MFR on the Bro but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go to the 200 once or twice a day. When the weather goes down there and it needs an alternate, the passenger count gets cut down quite a bits.

Yeah, I haven't seen a CRJ-700 to MFR in a few weeks, but most of the time MFR is one of the few stations from SFO that usually has EMB, CR2, and CR7 flights all at once. I remember many times working customer service where an MFR flight would cancel and the flights would be oversold for 3-4 days. United actually kept 737s on that route until the mid 2000s, I'm honestly surprised its not all jets like EUG. Like you said, MFR can get bad weight restrictions on the Bro since it usually gets an SFO alternate, especially at night. OTH is the worst though, the worst weight restriction I ever saw on a Bro was SFO-OTH when they were using the 19s at SFO with a 40 minute taxi time. Weight restricted to 21 people because over 20 of the 45(!) checked bags were heavy tagged, plus it had an alternate. It was oversold too, so they had to (forcibly) take 10 volunteers. Glad I was on the ramp for that one and not CS, but man, OTH really needs to be a jet year round. United spends a lot of money using FedEx Ground to get the left over bags to OTH when there is no jet to pile them into.

What @ChasenSFO(Redding is cool, yo.)

There are a whole bunch of guys on reserve this coming month (me included) that normally wouldn't be due to the various reshuffling plus San Francisco being awful.

Hey man, we're doing the best we can at SFO! My job seriously got a lot harder due to all the torn up taxiways(for the FAA controllers multiply that by 10), but honestly, they're doing A LOT behind the scenes to keep things moving very well. They're still managing 40 operations an hour off 2 runways when they can only land one at a time due to departures most of the day, that's not bad seeing as the standard rate isn't terribly higher.

But the Chinese restaurant in RDD is awesome.

 

[Boyington]

Is there any truth to the rumor that SKW is being forced to park the vast majority of their Brasilia's due to an airframe time issue? A friend went to SKW last month and told me that they were no longer hiring anyone for the Bro's, and upgrading the current Brasilia crews to the jet.

 

[GypsyPilot]

Is there any truth to the rumor that SKW is being forced to park the vast majority of their Brasilia's due to an airframe time issue? A friend went to SKW last month and told me that they were no longer hiring anyone for the Bro's, and upgrading the current Brasilia crews to the jet.

No. It's due to San Francisco construction and possibly also due to increasing mx costs on the Brasilia. There's no airframe limit that I'm aware of.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

No. It's due to San Francisco construction and possibly also due to increasing mx costs on the Brasilia. There's no airframe limit that I'm aware of.

(also @Boyington )

Turboprops don't, to my knowledge, have the same sort of limits that the RJs go through, cycle- and hour-limit wise. "Looks good to me..." There are quite a few time-limited parts in the power plant though. I can imagine that the real problem, maintenance wise, will eventually be parts availability, although that's a wild guess on my part.

I hadn't heard about the SBA thing. I hope that means SFO RJ crews will get to fly there too. That's my biggest sore spot from leaving the Bro. I'd overnight in SBA as often as they'd send me.

Yeah. Beagle-by-SkyWest stopped going there as a part of the Airways-American consolidation (apparently PHX is "good enough"), and thus the demand for the already limited flying there is even higher. SFO-SBA would make more sense to me as an RJ route, but that's several levels above and across my chain of command.

Is there any truth to the rumor that SKW is being forced to park the vast majority of their Brasilia's due to an airframe time issue? A friend went to SKW last month and told me that they were no longer hiring anyone for the Bro's, and upgrading the current Brasilia crews to the jet.

I do know this much - our June 2 EM2 class was cancelled and the new hires offered CRJ seats, probably much to everyone's delight.

Sorry to hear about the PDX base, the flying up there was beautiful and the folks were (are) great. Between the 200s coming out of the desert, the increased hiring/upgrading on the arrr jay and the Bro flying being drawn down (SFO runway silliness not withstanding) it makes one wonder what the end game will be over the next several months.

I never got to do any of it. I'll have to snag something in OT or bribe someone to assign me up there...TDY to Portland would be thoroughly alright, for "reasons."

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Best of luck to you. Reserve when overstaffed can be a pretty sweet gig.

...especially when you're #1 on the reserve list. "I can work today. Or I can not work today. Call First really does mean Call First (or Call Never)."

 

[skyw82]

Those that never got to do the pnw flying missed out. It really is the best flying you can do in the lower 48.

 

[Maurus]

Turboprops don't, to my knowledge, have the same sort of limits that the RJs go through, cycle- and hour-limit wise. "Looks good to me..." There are quite a few time-limited parts in the power plant though. I can imagine that the real problem, maintenance wise, will eventually be parts availability, although that's a wild guess on my part.

T-props are usually life limited by their wing spar. The metro's wing spar is limited to 50,000 hours. The BE 99 is limited to 50k as well but AMF has of course been doing a maintenance program to extend that.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

T-props are usually life limited by their wing spar. The metro's wing spar is limited to 50,000 hours. The BE 99 is limited to 50k as well but AMF has of course been doing a maintenance program to extend that.

Makes sense. I don't know what limits EMB have put on our airplanes, lifecycle wise. (I'll ask at recurrent...)

 

[Maurus]

Also on another note SKW has only announced the parking of 4 E120s.

 

[etflies]

Also on another note SKW has only announced the parking of 4 E120s.

PUH-LEEEEEEEEZ be tail numbers that end in "YV" or the lower of the "2XXSW" numbers.

 

[z987k]

Those that never got to do the pnw flying missed out. It really is the best flying you came do in the lower 48.

I used to love my 30 minture OTH-RGB hop in the afternoon on the pa31. Usually VFR, usually at 500-1000ft. Waterfalls, rivers etc. Beautiful.

 

[Roger Roger]

I used to love my 30 minture OTH-RGB hop in the afternoon on the pa31. Usually VFR, usually at 500-1000ft. Waterfalls, rivers etc. Beautiful.

Sounds just like Colgan, I bet you wish you'd known back then that local weather effects were fictional.