Big Sky to stop East Coast opps

I don't know, Comair has a huge operation for Delta and is owned by Delta. I doubt Delta will cut off their own foot.

... Because being owned by Delta means everything! If you really are drinking this one just look at the recent American Eagle and late Continental Express A.K.A. ExpressJet.

Delta reduced almost everybody's block. Not anything noticeable though. We're not going anywhere because Skywest signed a 15 year deal with Delta when they bought ASA that ASA must operate at least 80% of DCI operations out of ATL.

Correcto.

Skywest saved Delta from going completely under when they bought us according to our management. I have a really hard time seeing Skywest go away from DCI

SkyWest saved Delta? Ha ha ha ha!!! Is the Kool-Aid at ASA grape and ice cold? C'mon man, get with it... DAL needed the liquidity to improve their cash position. Nothing more, nothing less. Seriously though, I am sure Delta loves ASA's sub par record and negative publicity of late.
 
Not to derail the DCI bitch-fest, but all bigsky flights for the next two days (today and tomorrow) into BGR are cancelled. DL has Comair running 2 CRJs to BOS through the 23rd. I wonder if DL kicked them to the curb early?

Edit: I take that back Other stations are running, I guess that since BGR has the stuff to handle a CRJ they replaced that service. We had 6 1900s, so releasing those crews and planes to the rest of the operation might do them some good.
 
Not to derail the DCI bitch-fest, but all bigsky flights for the next two days (today and tomorrow) into BGR are cancelled. DL has Comair running 2 CRJs to BOS through the 23rd.

Ahh, I guess that is why we have all those BOS-BGR-BOS flights in Open Time;)
 
Comair to take over Big Sky flights out
Bangor Daily News
December 20, 2007

Big Sky Airlines, a Delta Connection partner that flies from Bangor to Boston, announced early Wednesday evening it would discontinue its East Coast operations Jan. 7.

Despite Big Skys departure, Delta announced Wednesday evening that Comair, another Delta Connection carrier that serves Bangor International Airport, would pick up the Bangor-to-Boston route, according to Anthony Black, a Delta spokesman.

Comair presently flies the Delta Connection flights from BIA to Delta markets in Atlanta and Cincinnati.

On Jan. 7, Big Sky will cease operations at 16 airports from Tennessee to New York and from New Jersey to New Brunswick.

Delta Air Lines will refund tickets or reroute customers to other flights if they hold Big Sky tickets booked after Jan. 7. Delta reservation agents will contact customers, including those from Bangor, who have flights scheduled after that date on Big Sky, Black said. Customers can also call Delta directly at 800-221-1212.

Comair will begin service "almost immediately" after the Jan. 7 Big Sky departure, Black said. Comair will fly to Boston twice daily using 50-seat regional jets, replacing Big Skys six daily flights that use 19-seat turbo-propelled planes, according to Rebecca Hupp, BIA director. Big Sky had been flying four flights daily from BIA since it began service here in April, but had added two more daily flights on Nov. 4.

"Clearly there is demand for quality service and there is a market between Bangor and Boston," Hupp said from home Wednesday evening.

Hupp said she expects the change will improve the Bangor-to-Boston route service. The 19-seat planes were not popular with BIA patrons.

"I expect that passengers will welcome the return of the 50-seat jet," she said.

Big Sky is a Montana-based airline that began contracting in April 2007 with Delta in small and medium-size markets, and operating out of BostonsLogan International Airport, according to a press release. Big Sky and Delta mutually agreed to cessation in services. Big Sky cited unusually bad weather, disappointing revenues and fuel prices as reasons for its departure. Big Sky will continue to operate in Montana as it works to transition its services to another carrier.

The jobs of approximately 140 Big Sky employees - primarily located in Boston; Watertown, N.Y.; and Covington, Ky. - will be eliminated, according to the airline. The company has engaged a broker to assist in the sale of its East Coast aircraft.
 
whoo hoo. 2 CRJs a day. still a loss of seats. At least 1 is a RON.

Dang We've gone a long way from the mid-90's:

737s to ORD on UAL
DC-9s and F100s to PHL on US
MD-80s and 727s to CVG and ATL on DL (via SWF PVD and BOS)
737s to EWR on CAL

Hourly Saabs on BusinessExpress to BOS
Metro's on top of that to BOS under the NWairlink banner (I forgot who operated those)
6 ATRs a day to EWR and a few to BOS as well for COex (and a crew base) (thats why I live here)
CommutAir 1900s to BOS for USair

We even had scheduled service JFK-BGR-KEF-LHR on PanAm to rotate their 727s to europe and back in the 80's. and more recently had finnair HEL-BGR-somewhere and you could buy tickets BGR-HEL

American Eagle pulled out in November.

In other news today Allegiant is doubling capacity to BGR to 4 flights a week for february and march. Wooo hooo more 79 dolla tix to go see a mouse.

I miss the good old days.
 
I haven't posted here in a while, but it looks like I'll be around more now that I'm looking for a job...

Word from mgmnt is that the Western operation is closing as well, including all the EAS routes that were recently re-awarded. This could happen as early as February.

The pilot group has been asked to continue working through Jan 8th in the East, which is the date that my employment is "permanently terminated."

I seriously doubt those with job offers elsewhere will bother to stick around.

I'll post more info when I have time. Shawn, thanks for the kind words, I'll call you this week.

Let us know if we can help in any way.
 
SkyWest saved Delta? Ha ha ha ha!!! Is the Kool-Aid at ASA grape and ice cold? C'mon man, get with it... DAL needed the liquidity to improve their cash position. Nothing more, nothing less. Seriously though, I am sure Delta loves ASA's sub par record and negative publicity of late.

ASA record is actually not subpar. Every quarter we meet many of the performance incentives that get us extra money from Delta. Now the negative pub is based on the on time performance, which is due more to ATL infrastructure then the company itself. Delta operates ATL as a "superhub" and has more flights out of ATL then any other airline has a single airport in the world. The ramp is absolute madness. When flights gets restricted Delta controls who gets ground stopped and who doesn't. So in this situation Delta is going to give preference to mainline flights. Steps are being taken anyhow to improve on time performance.
 
Skywest saved Delta from going completely under when they bought us according to our management.

By all means, welcome to the airline business.

A little 60 second introduction about management kool aid.

You're at an airline that has a heavy amount of attrition. Management will tell you what it thinks you need to hear in order for you to show up to work, on-time, and not run off to a competing regional carrier.

That might be a bitter pill to swallow, but that's a basic concept which I think you need to understand.

Remember, you're not management, you're a pilot. Pilots are labor! You need to understand that distinction and the earlier you do, the better off you'll be.

Sadly, in the airline business, labor is simply a cost and not seen as an asset. But we're 'perishable' so they'll come down, take off their ties, say "Call me Fred, we're buddies..." while you're around the training center and float stories to make sure they glean the most amount of productivity out of you before you say, "Screw it! I'm going to Republic!"

We gossip! Everything you hear in ground school isn't Pandora cracking open the box slightly so the privileged few can have a peek. They "float" juicy little 'tidbits' because they know we're going to gossip about it on line and drive sentiment, especially during contract negotiations.

If I hear "Dude! I was at "In Command" and they said that they're going to buy Jet Blue, oil's way up, consolidation is inevitable! Our costs need to be competitive so the DOJ will approve the acquisition" one more time, I'm going to punk slap the messenger. That's just management's way of saying, "Hey, don't even DREAM of asking for a pay restoration".

I'm not trying to be negative or beat you down, by any means. I'd like you to have a few more tools to work with in the early stages of your new airline career.
 
ASA record is actually not subpar. Every quarter we meet many of the performance incentives that get us extra money from Delta. Now the negative pub is based on the on time performance, which is due more to ATL infrastructure then the company itself.

However you want to toot your own horn. Even Forbes had ASA as "America's worst airline".
 
However you want to toot your own horn. Even Forbes had ASA as "America's worst airline".

At least we're #1 in something....being the worst airline :-D. Hopefully that'll change with Delta taking over our ramp stuff. I doubt it though. The other fun part is in the near future we're moving our Flight Control to a different building. I really hope that happens before I hit the line because I'm sure it'll be a mess.
 
Profit at a regional is guaranteed. Not to rain of your kool-aid parade, but that means jack crap.

ASA 'profit' = Delta 'Loss'
 
Arguing which regional has the best performance, is the best, coolest pilot group, etc is like arguing which STD is most preferable to get.
 
Back
Top