C5 MEC Conference Call

Houston base is imminent. Colgan's old routes being done by the ERJ135 are a perfect fit for the Q200 & Q300. Not to mention EWR & IAD don't have too much room for short range prop growth.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    346 KB · Views: 187
Jdog said:
Houston base is imminent. Colgan's old routes being done by the ERJ135 are a perfect fit for the Q200 & Q300. Not to mention EWR & IAD don't have too much room for short range prop growth.
Click to expand...
What about old Silver routes out of CLE that UA said would still get service but out of IAD?

I had heard that Silver wouldn't be doing all the routes.
 
I'd heard that with TSA pulling out of IAD and moving up to ORD that the IAD base will grow into their former routes.

IAH would be pretty amazing, but I just don't see it happening.
 
Jdog said:
Houston base is imminent. Colgan's old routes being done by the ERJ135 are a perfect fit for the Q200 & Q300. Not to mention EWR & IAD don't have too much room for short range prop growth.
Click to expand...

It makes sense as an all or nothing operation.. ExpressJet has 9 135's down there at the moment doing cities like LCH, TYR, LRD, etc. They could send maybe 9 200's down there and have all of the 300's and 6 200's in IAD and EWR. The problem with that idea though is heavy MX. So we're gonna fly 4 hr repo flights from IAH-CLE (with a fuel stop) to get planes into heavy MX? Who pays that fuel bill? What happens when there's an airplane in IAH that needs a gear swing? Gear down ferry to CLE with 5 fuel stops?

So now we have MX in CLE (heavy+line), IAD (line), EWR (line) and soon ALB (heavy?+line). Okay, so say they decide to open a heavy MX base in IAH. That's fine and all, but they have to have something like $1.5 million in parts inventory to open a line MX station right? What about to open a heavy MX station? It's gotta be at least double that. That's a lot of money for a company that counts its profit margins in the single digits.

I think an IAH operation makes sense, but only if they send all of the airplanes there. This is a company that operates airplanes at most 500nm away from home base at any given time, and most of the time it's much closer than that. To go from 500nm all the sudden to 950nm is quite a leap.

Any of the old Colgan peeps know how many total Saabs/Q's you guys had operating out of IAH?
 
N519AT said:
It makes sense as an all or nothing operation.. ExpressJet has 9 135's down there at the moment doing cities like LCH, TYR, LRD, etc. They could send maybe 9 200's down there and have all of the 300's and 6 200's in IAD and EWR. The problem with that idea though is heavy MX. So we're gonna fly 4 hr repo flights from IAH-CLE (with a fuel stop) to get planes into heavy MX? Who pays that fuel bill? What happens when there's an airplane in IAH that needs a gear swing? Gear down ferry to CLE with 5 fuel stops?

So now we have MX in CLE (heavy+line), IAD (line), EWR (line) and soon ALB (heavy?+line). Okay, so say they decide to open a heavy MX base in IAH. That's fine and all, but they have to have something like $1.5 million in parts inventory to open a line MX station right? What about to open a heavy MX station? It's gotta be at least double that. That's a lot of money for a company that counts its profit margins in the single digits.

I think an IAH operation makes sense, but only if they send all of the airplanes there. This is a company that operates airplanes at most 500nm away from home base at any given time, and most of the time it's much closer than that. To go from 500nm all the sudden to 950nm is quite a leap.

Any of the old Colgan peeps know how many total Saabs/Q's you guys had operating out of IAH?
Click to expand...
I think the Saab had 11 or 12 lines and one operational spare airplane
 
BobDDuck said:
Sure. But how many Passenger Seat Miles (or whatever actual industry metric you want to use) occur during that 1 hour?

I'd guess the RJ is going to carry people a lot further during that time than the Dash (despite its name). Say both planes are flying the same 200 mile segment all day long. By the end of the day the RJ will have been able to do an extra turn (or two) in the same amount of flight time, bringing in X amount more revenue.

On short segments (<150 miles) is where it starts to be more effective to throw a Dash in there.
Click to expand...

Just depends how United feels. Our longest will be 423 miles (CLE-ALB).

I looked up tomorrow's flights to Buffalo out of Cleveland tomorrow, and the difference between a regional jet and a Dash over 191 miles is 9 minutes. 9 minutes! Ticket prices are always identical whether on a fuel-sipping prop or a gulping jet, so United wins there.

dashvsrj.jpg


United allows us to do quick 24-minute turns, as well, so any lost time in the air can be made up on the ground.

A typical Dash will see 10 legs per day at C5. So while I agree that passengers are indeed going further on many regional jets, United is able to sell 500 tickets per day with many of those connecting to profitable domestic and international flights off of a single Dash. It's actually by not being in the air so long that we can get more profit off of ticket tales for United. Do RJ's fly 10 legs a day? Beats me.

We aren't the airplane to make United money. We are the servant airplane to get as many passengers cheaply to the big money-making airplanes (and routes). It works.
 
N519AT said:
It makes sense as an all or nothing operation.. ExpressJet has 9 135's down there at the moment doing cities like LCH, TYR, LRD, etc. They could send maybe 9 200's down there and have all of the 300's and 6 200's in IAD and EWR. The problem with that idea though is heavy MX. So we're gonna fly 4 hr repo flights from IAH-CLE (with a fuel stop) to get planes into heavy MX? Who pays that fuel bill? What happens when there's an airplane in IAH that needs a gear swing? Gear down ferry to CLE with 5 fuel stops?

So now we have MX in CLE (heavy+line), IAD (line), EWR (line) and soon ALB (heavy?+line). Okay, so say they decide to open a heavy MX base in IAH. That's fine and all, but they have to have something like $1.5 million in parts inventory to open a line MX station right? What about to open a heavy MX station? It's gotta be at least double that. That's a lot of money for a company that counts its profit margins in the single digits.

I think an IAH operation makes sense, but only if they send all of the airplanes there. This is a company that operates airplanes at most 500nm away from home base at any given time, and most of the time it's much closer than that. To go from 500nm all the sudden to 950nm is quite a leap.

Any of the old Colgan peeps know how many total Saabs/Q's you guys had operating out of IAH?
Click to expand...

Colgan had a hangar in IAD, IAH and ALB. I dont know which ones were heavy check approved. But it didnt really affect the operations too much. If they needed a plane to get to Albany for a planned check then youd see it repo'd IAH - IAD and then it may fly around the system before being repo'd again up to ALB. Does C5 do IAD-ALB? If so then Im sure thats the plan.

Also, your HQs being in Cleveland means nothing as to where your aircraft will fly. Colgan had Manassas as a HQ which wasnt even serviced by an airline. Air Wisconsin has Appleton and no longer has any of there own aircraft operating in out for regular passenger service.
 
v1valarob said:
Does C5 do IAD-ALB?
Click to expand...
Yea we pick that up in May. I think IAH as someone posted previously is imminent as well. I don't see where they are going to stick the 7-8 CLE aircraft in the IAD and EWR system. Just no gates available or routes that fit what United likes to do with us. I know that all of the transition is quite costly but its hard for me to believe that United doesn't pick up the tab when something like this happens. Eventually the ALB mx base will take over all the the CLE responsibilities I'm sure. Whether it was profitable or worked I do not know but CommutAir will soon mirror the Colgan SAAB operations. Hopefully something official will be posted soon either way.
 
Anyone know what today's call was like? I wasn't able to listen in.

As for the base situation, I don't think anything is out of the question, but I'd lean toward IAH. Maybe a shuffling is in order in IAD, some of the short stuff flown by the various RJ's could be shifted to Dash ( IAD-MDT for example). Problem is, the loads are usually pretty good on the IAD-MDT flight that I've deadheaded on, it won't be fit for the 200 and we don't have enough 300's.

I could see IAH and I wouldn't mind it for the change of scenery, but it would be a tough commute for many of us in the east. I know we have some folks who live closer to that part of the country, but it's not many. I just hope we find out soon, whatever the case is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top