Air Canada to transfer E175s from mainline to regional

ChasenSFO

hen teaser
http://aircanada.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=583

Consistent with Air Canada's focus on pursuing international growth opportunities and its on-going cost transformation initiatives, the airline and Sky Regional Airlines, Inc. (Sky Regional) have agreed to the transfer of 15 Embraer 175 aircraft, the smallest aircraft in Air Canada's fleet, from Air Canada to Sky Regional to operate the aircraft on behalf of Air Canada under the capacity purchase agreement between the parties.

Air Canada only has 15 E175s in the fleet, so this will mean all of them are going to Sky Regional. They also have 45 E190s, but with no new orders, I think our neighbors to the North aren't going to be happy about this. In the past, both Jazz and mainline Air Canada operated CRJs side by side, and all of them were eventually transferred to Jazz. Not sure what happened with the RJ transfer, but I wonder if this is going to result in some junior AC FOs ending up as Sky Regional pilots.
 
Air Canada never operated the CRJ.

Interesting development for my homeboys up north.
 
Air Canada never operated the CRJ.

You wanna try that again?

0211784.jpg


Also, check out Air Canada Flight 646 that crashed on go-around at Fredericton, New Brunswick back in 1997.
 
I take it back. I scoured the air canada website to no avail. I didn't remember AC ever operating them either.
I'm getting senile.
 
I take it back. I scoured the air canada website to no avail. I didn't remember AC ever operating them either.
I'm getting senile.

Not at all, it was in the way back time...hell, the only reason I know is because they used to fly them in to ATL and I couldn't imagine taking that "little jet all the way to canadia".

and I apologize for being snarky...it's been a long 3 days of a 4 day trip!
 
They got rid of the mandatory retirement age so there should be some cane shaking going on.

Just like what's going to happen here if ICAO has its way and we use "flawed science" to find a way to agree with it... again.
 
A shift of mainline jobs to a "regional" is a real shame. But Toronto to Houston is hardly a regional...
 
Also, check out Air Canada Flight 646 that crashed on go-around at Fredericton, New Brunswick back in 1997.
AC646 was one of the most intense accident sequences I've ever read about in which everyone survived and many were for the most part unhurt. Wikipedia summarized it pretty well:

The aircraft banked sharply to the right until the wingtip contacted the runway, bending the wing upwards by four feet. Then the aircraft leveled off until the nose contacted the runway. This broke the right winglet, broke off the nose landing gear, destroyed the radome, and caused heavy damage to the underside of the aircraft. All electrical power except the emergency lighting was lost. At this time engines had reached full power and the aircraft was rolling on its main gear, off the right side of the runway, through the snow, until it hit a ditch that ran parallel to the runway. This sent the plane airborne, where it flew about 1,000 feet (300 m), struck some trees, and finally came to rest. One large tree had entered the cabin through the main passenger door and cut a path in the fuselage through the first five rows of seats.

Up until the mid-late 90s, there were several non-US carriers that operated turbo-props or regional jets along side heavies. That is until us Americans showed them that outsourcing this would save them a bajillion dollars. But interestingly on the note of Air Canada flying the CRJ-200 mainline, they also had larger Bae-146's flying with regionals under the Air Canada banner during the same time period. Must have been an interesting contract to allow regional to operate RJs bigger than theirs.
 
When I was last in Phoenix a few weeks ago. I was talking to one of the guys in the waiting room who told me he was an FO on the Dash when he first got hired at America West. Think what you want, but the regional outsource game didn't hit high gear until the late 90's.
 
The whole affiliate, regional, partner, etc is all about division of labor. There's really no reason for not doing all the flying under a single company.
 
When I was last in Phoenix a few weeks ago. I was talking to one of the guys in the waiting room who told me he was an FO on the Dash when he first got hired at America West. Think what you want, but the regional outsource game didn't hit high gear until the late 90's.
That's another funny one. Mainline Dash-8-100s, Desert Sun Airlines flying 70-seat Fokker 70s along side them. The only way to provide a seamless product is with one carrier doing all the flying and ground work. I'll tell you that I truly think that the first US major who would be able to do that would be getting lucrative frequent flyers jumping ship from the competitors faster than they can handle them.
 
That's another funny one. Mainline Dash-8-100s, Desert Sun Airlines flying 70-seat Fokker 70s along side them. The only way to provide a seamless product is with one carrier doing all the flying and ground work. I'll tell you that I truly think that the first US major who would be able to do that would be getting lucrative frequent flyers jumping ship from the competitors faster than they can handle them.
No, frequent flyers do not pay attention to who's up front (mainline or regional pilot). All they see is big or "small" airplane, and God forbid if it has turboprops on it...
 
No, frequent flyers do not pay attention to who's up front (mainline or regional pilot). All they see is big or "small" airplane, and God forbid if it has turboprops on it...
In most cases yes, but I think there are a certain amount that do take notice, particularly if the service/condition of the planes is typically subpar. Especially with the airlines that print the regional on the ticket, people are probably going to start noticing more often. Speaking of, I thought that was going to be a requirement? The only airline I've personally noticed that does it is United.

It'd be great to have it all under one banner, but you know the CEOs want a dozen regionals climbing all over each other to be the bottom bidder.
 
No, frequent flyers do not pay attention to who's up front (mainline or regional pilot). All they see is big or "small" airplane, and God forbid if it has turboprops on it...
Trust me, as someone who delt with frequent flyers for a living, when they were happy we were United Express, when we sucked, we were Skywest. 50,000mi/yr+ frequent flyers just know. It could be a subtle hint like a quick line in a PA announcement, an employee badge, a safety card, a plane in a house livery, ect., but they usually know they're on another contracted airline.
 
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