C5 MEC Conference Call

Have you looked at the financial positions of C5 to make such a statement?

Apparently PNCL Corp. and Delta must have briefed the BoD at Commutair and United on the best tactics to "snooker" a pilot group into thinking that they are getting an "industry leading contract" and a secure career at their airline. I find it HIGHLY doubtful that this contract will be to paraphrase here..."sustainable under the fee for departure revenue stream we have with our codeshare partner(s)". Commutair is in panic mode because of the anarchy that is the regional airline industry. Why is it in anarchy? Because the people that run these companies want it this way...The legacies are calmly attracting and hiring the pick of the litter and will NEVER run out of qualified applicants for these jobs. Who knows what is going to happen? Beats the heck out of me, but I would be a little bit concerned if this LOA is approved and UAL say's you're too expensive...Try again
 
Already spoke with C5 HR this afternoon. :)

I wouldn't go near that place unless they hired you as a Captain...You'd be better off going to...<gulp> MESA with an IAD base and a 2-year upgrade...Although, the thought of going to Mesa is rather difficult to swallow...
 
One little sidebar...The C5 -200s don't have an APU! Cannot speak the -300s, but they did have a HUD (came from Austrian Airlines)
 
One little sidebar...The C5 -200s don't have an APU! Cannot speak the -300s, but they did have a HUD (came from Austrian Airlines)

oh-the-huge-manatee.jpg


All airplanes have an HGS. Only the 300's have APUs.
 
Apparently PNCL Corp. and Delta must have briefed the BoD at Commutair and United on the best tactics to "snooker" a pilot group into thinking that they are getting an "industry leading contract" and a secure career at their airline. I find it HIGHLY doubtful that this contract will be to paraphrase here..."sustainable under the fee for departure revenue stream we have with our codeshare partner(s)". Commutair is in panic mode because of the anarchy that is the regional airline industry. Why is it in anarchy? Because the people that run these companies want it this way...The legacies are calmly attracting and hiring the pick of the litter and will NEVER run out of qualified applicants for these jobs. Who knows what is going to happen? Beats the heck out of me, but I would be a little bit concerned if this LOA is approved and UAL say's you're too expensive...Try again

First, the reason why PNCL Corp. went bankrupt is because of incompetent management. I am not sure why you want to blame the pilot group??? A merger brings synergies and costs savings to a corporation. Pinnacle Corp. management didn't know what the hell they were doing, how to deal with their mainline partners, and the employees suffered because of incompetence.

Secondly, you are looking at this LOA from the wrong viewpoint. This LOA will probably SAVE, yes that is right SAVE Commutair money. From my understanding 20+ FOs have already left C5 this year already (someone please correct me if I am wrong) and as training costs a minimum $25,000-$30,000 per pilot, a pay raise and a few hotel rooms aren't going to cost NEARLY as much as retraining pilots who put in six months and bail for a jet. So this LOA will probably put Commutair in a better financial state than they were.
 
I wouldn't go near that place unless they hired you as a Captain...You'd be better off going to...<gulp> MESA with an IAD base and a 2-year upgrade...Although, the thought of going to Mesa is rather difficult to swallow...

I would go to Commutair over Mesa. Once again, this LOA is going to save the company money and solidify their financials.
 
Apparently PNCL Corp. and Delta must have briefed the BoD at Commutair and United on the best tactics to "snooker" a pilot group into thinking that they are getting an "industry leading contract" and a secure career at their airline...I would be a little bit concerned if this LOA is approved and UAL say's you're too expensive...Try again

Two highest airline costs: Salaries and Fuel
Mesa Flight, 10-year Captain and 2-year FO: $71/hour + $29/hour + $1800/hour fuel (360 gallons/hour RJ burn x $5.00 gallon jet fuel)
CommutAir Flight: 10-year Captain and 2-year FO: $65/hour + $32/hour + $1250/hour fuel (250 gallons/hour x $5.00 gallon prop fuel)

So for every hour a flight is flown, Mesa costs $1900/hour, while C5 costs $1347/hour.

Ooooooooooor another way to look at it: C5 is $553/hour cheaper to use than Mesa.

Ooooooooooor another way to look at it: C5's 150 flights a day at an average block of 1.5 hours saves United $124,425 each and every day over a carrier such as Mesa.

Ooooooooooor another way to look at it: C5's 150 flights a day at an average block of 1.5 hours saves United $45,415,125 each and every year over a comparable carrier like Mesa.

The best part about being the ugly guy at school? You can date the mediocre girls AND the pretty girls and be happy with either. C5 is possibly gaining a nice haircut and more attractive clothes with this proposed LOA. It's not the best out there, and it's certainly not the worst. But he is who he is, and while he is not the star-studded quarterback, he doesn't have to be to be happy.

****Disclaimer: Prop fuel does not in fact exist for the Mighty Dash 8. This was used for foolish purposes to expose a foolish argument. Dashes run on trash, which is to be found in the front of the airplane on two seats in what most call the Flightdeck. Unlike jets, Dashes in reality do not even fly. They simply beat their way through the air. Also, ugly girls DO in fact turn beautiful in time. And the hot high school chick grows fat and gross. Today's hot regio...er, I mean girl...is tomorrow's ugly regiona...er, I mean girl. And today's sexy LOA...er, woman...is tomorrow's overweight contra...er, I mean lady. Oh, and for the very important disclaimer, I am Trash. C54L.
 
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Ooooooooooor another way to look at it: C5 is $553/hour cheaper to use than Mesa.

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.
 
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.
...Which is why we fly short segments, as I'm sure the United fleet planner already knows. Your point?
 
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.
I think he was just being a bit facetious.
 
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.

I'm not saying you're wrong but we are starting to do some longer flying too for some reason. We have quite a few 250nm+ routes out of IAD and we just picked up IAD-PVD which is ~330nm.
 
...Which is why we fly short segments, as I'm sure the United fleet planner already knows. Your point?

I'm not saying you're wrong but we are starting to do some longer flying too for some reason. We have quite a few 250nm+ routes out of IAD and we just picked up IAD-PVD which is ~330nm.

You often do fly shorter segments but there are some longer ones flown. Also, the RJs are mostly flying longer segments (although I'm sure there are some shorter ones flown as well). My point is that the $550 an hour number has absolutely no context other than if you were to put an empty plane in the air for an hour and fly in circles over the airport it would cost $550 less to do it in the Dash than in the RJ. But that's not how airplanes operate to make money. They load passengers in the back and fly from point A to point B. Depending on the distance between those two points it may take the Dash 90 minutes to do it while it only takes the RJ 60. At that point, assuming the same number of people crammed in to the back, your cost savings per hour are still $550 but your savings per trip are $0 because it takes the Dash an extra hour (30 minutes go and 30 minutes coming back) to do the trip.

Again, I'm not arguing that the cost per hour on the Dash isn't less but rather that that number doesn't really mean much when you put it on a balance sheet kind of metric.
 
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