SurferLucas
Southern Gentleman
QX will be one of those without PDC for one more month…Q, we called for clearance, the E has PDC
Mesa loses AA contracts
- Thread starter DE727UPS
- Start date
Or taking, no exaggeration, up to 10 minutes to open Jepp.
Hiboglossi
The Most Depressing Person
I always liked hearing complaints about the Surface back when my company was the last U.S. carrier to still use paper charts.
ChasenSFO
hen teaser
Back in the mid 90s when Denver closed Stapleton and opened up DIA, Mesa was doing a ton of UA flying out of DEN with B1900s as well as operating 3 subsidiaries for United Express; Westair (SFO/LAX), Mountain West (LAX), and Northern Pacific Airlines (SEA/PDX). Basically, the whole Western US United Express operation was ultimately Mesa other than Air Wisconsin doing a small amount of BAe-146 flying from DEN. Great Lakes was flying B1900s and EMB-120s from ORD/MSP and SkyWest was a Delta Connection carrier only. The fixed-rate contracts with UA were signed before the move to DIA, and when it occurred, Mesa was having huge new usage fees passed onto itself after profits from UA. As a result, Mesa's profits were tanking fast. When UA was unwilling to renegotiate until the contract was up, Mesa decided to cancel huge swathes of flights, daily, until they were satisfied with their profit. This went on from 1995 thru 1997, with UA furious demanding that Mesa fulfill their obligations while Mesa (correctly, at first) ignored UA's demands knowing that there was no way that UA could just instantly replace such a huge feeder operation across the Western US. Well, UA put in some work, and it just so happened that Delta was winding down its LAX Delta Connection operation to a few cities after replacing the 19-seat metros with 30-seat Brasilias wasn't working out so hot on many routes, and Great Lakes was willing to take on a huge number of B1900s and figure it out. So, all at once in April of 1998, Westair (which Nothern Pacific Airlines had since consolidated into), Mountain West, and Mesa itself were replaced by SkyWest's huge new Brasilia fleet, Great Lakes' huge new B1900 fleet, and increased Air Wisconsin flying in DEN with DHC-8s, Do328s (RIP Western Pacific\Mountain Air Express) and BAe-146s. Thousands of weekly flights were erased, and most of the planes were parked in the desert. The airline effectively lost damn near all of its airplanes and flying. This was of course all done during very public bashing of one another by both sides, with Mesa and UA pledging to never work together again.
Mesa was reduced to practically nothing, retaining only its America West PHX operation and its own New Mexico-based network. Fast forward a few years to 9\11 and the regional jet blitzkrieg where majors couldn't replace 737s and DC-9s with CRJs and ERJs fast enough and, sure enough, Mesa was flying United Express CRJs out of ORD by 2002 or 2003. Not to mention that even after this highly public debacle and huge setback, Mesa went on to fly for US Airways, American, Frontier and Delta as well.
And now here we are, in 2022, with the remnants of the America West Express operation being terminated all these years later by AA and UA happily taking the aircraft and boosting Mesa flying. There is no loyalty in this business. Once Alaska had Horizon dump the CRJ-700s only to sign SkyWest on to fly...CRJ-700s and re-branded its regional flying, I was convinced that any airline will make any decision for its benefit regardless of historical differences, loyalty, or employee opinion.
I think Mesa will survive, but I also think the next few years will be very turbulent for them with Mesa emerging as something else, possibly more cargo than passenger flying, who knows. There are a lot of 737NGs in the desert.
19-seat flying went the way of the dodo, followed about 15 years later by 30-seat flying. Different situation, Great Lakes had nothing left. Mesa has United, Amazon, and surely other tricks up their filthy sleeves.
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Surface #1, if just used for work stuff? Great.
Surface #2 when it tried to become a keyboardless laptop but a tablet, but a desktop? Miserable. I'd replace it every four months.
I still can't believe some of my colleagues literally bought them to give them to their wives. I question what kind of 1960's Betty Draper situation they had going on at home that their spouse would say "Oh YES! I get my very own tablet! Who cares if it's a hand me down on a dying platform!"
///AMG
Well-Known Member
"If you're looking for a stylish, lightweight, and ergonomic laptop, the Surface Laptop 4 might be the perfect choice for you. It's a really lovely device to use for everyday tasks and work, and can be used on the go for long periods of time thanks to its great battery life"
I just bought my wife one. She has no money of her own. And she has no idea about technology. I told her to keep pumping out babies and the surfaces will keep flowing. She also didn't DD me home last night. I told her "hey sweet tits, just sit over there and let the captain take you home" (we have this fun thing where I'm the captain in my non work life, she brings me beers, and sits on my lap in strange arctic puffer outfits but with a skirt with blue high rise boots and then we talk about where she's from and how bad the people in 1DF are).
I just bought my wife one. She has no money of her own. And she has no idea about technology. I told her to keep pumping out babies and the surfaces will keep flowing. She also didn't DD me home last night. I told her "hey sweet tits, just sit over there and let the captain take you home" (we have this fun thing where I'm the captain in my non work life, she brings me beers, and sits on my lap in strange arctic puffer outfits but with a skirt with blue high rise boots and then we talk about where she's from and how bad the people in 1DF are).
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Post of the Week: WINNERRRRRRR!
///AMG
Well-Known Member
I'll admit, it is a weird kink. Sometimes I ask her to tell me about her overnight in Bethel.....all the deets!
ASpilot2be
Qbicle seat warmer
I have a Surface and I love it. It's great on the road.
AA34
Well-Known Member
I think they hold up better than an iPad when thrown.
Burrito
Position And Hold My Beer
Probably the converted freighters (EMB120s, Saab 340Fs) at some Mom&Pop shops next. I suppose you could call that "Amazon."
Makes me think if Ameriflight is in the sights, though I would doubt it.
Just typing thoughts aloud...
NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
You needed all that to realize that? That’s business 101
ChasenSFO
hen teaser
Depends on the industry. Look at cancel culture. Its not like Nike will be going back to Kyrie Irving like United did Mesa. Sometimes "get out" means gtfo and not "see you again when it's convenient".
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
Well, there is a bit of a difference between poor performance which can be fixed, and someone just bring a garbage person.
Fixtur
Dunning-Kruger Expert
So you're telling me there's a chance...
ChasenSFO
hen teaser
I'd argue spending 2 years canceling swathes of flights to have a public pissing match with your customer airline all the while taunting them with "what are you going to do about it?" goes beyond poor performance. Yet 3 years later, "Hey...we can fly those RJs for you"...
That definitely wouldn't happen in a lot of industries after it went down like that, but commuter flying has always been pretty slimey lol
And sometimes doing the right thing happens to align with “this jackass is going to be bad for business.”
Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
The Atlas FO who crashed was from Mesa.
Friend of mine who flunked out of training at Republic went to Mesa when they weren't doing interviews (just giving out class dates after you applied).
They've also scraped a wingtip on a clear and calm day
I heard the lady who did that went to Delta less than 12 months later.
