Mesa... go!.... Aloha? Weird...

[kellwolf]

Delta's on everyone's case (at least the contract carriers) on the D0, A+14 and completion factor. We're still under the microscope despite the "agreement" worked out months ago. Fact is, Delta builds some pretty odd schedules. I talked to one CA on the Delta side from here who's flight to TLH was scheduled for less than the block time. He wasn't even gonna be off the ground in ATL by the time they were supposed to be on TLH, much less be there A+14.

 

[Lowlevel]

I don't know, I wasn't there. I tend to give my colleagues the benefit of the doubt over some guy dreaming that we go out of business, though. I've never flown on the Freedom certificate but how it works in United Express is that we don't finish the W&B paperwork until the gate agent / ground peeps hands us the baggage slip with the number of checked in pax on it (which signals that they're done boarding.) Then the FA makes his/her count and if the two numbers agree then we know we have all the pax on board. Maybe ops was rushing them to get this flight out because they had an a/c idling waiting for the gate, who knows.

What also may have happened (although I hope this is not the case) is in September most of the Freedom guys were thinking they were probably going to be either out of a job or downgraded and expected Comair to pick up the flying we were scheduled to lose (it was on DeltaNet that way) and this captain decided to screw over some ComAir guys -- if this was the case he certainly is not representitive of Mesa as a whole -- there are bad apples in every bunch. I could tell you some stories about some serious bad apples in your company but nothing gets accomplished in an exchange like that.

Not sure why he did it, maybe to piss off Comair guys, maybe because he was trying to make Freedom look good with an early push. That said, the other flight was a week or so from this one, where they were taxing down A on the way to the rwy 15 minutes before push time. So, it was not just one crew.

The main reason Comair has furloughed in the last few months is that after the September injunction, Delta gave Freedom 25% of Comair's block hours at JFK (in addition to the Freedom block hours they already had). We lost almost 3000 hours of JFK flying when they did that. Some say that Delta did this to make Freedom look bad during the appeal, because they will not be able to keep up. Who knows. The additional cuts in flights during October and November, due to Delta's cut backs, have just worsened Comair's position to the point that additional furloughs are needed, but if we had kept that 3000 hours at JFK, we may not have furloughed or may have not furloughed so many (pilots & FA's).

Interesting numbers: From August 2005 to now, Comair has reduced it's pilot workforce 34%, not including the January 2009 furloughs. Most of this has occurred in the past few months.

 

[Lowlevel]

Well said, SpiralingMeatballs. We don't leave till the gate agent closes the flight, which doesn't really happen 10+ minutes prior to departure. But hey, I don't work the Freedom side either.

Anywho- back on topic. From what I've read, it's not 100% sure that Mesa will get the Aloha name, but is a strong possibility. Personally, I think it's a disgrace to the Aloha name and former employees. But I sure as hell don't run this company.

JFK. Need I say more? The gate agent controls 10 aircraft spots at one time. They could care less what the crew decides to do. If you radio Ops and ask for a final count, they will give it to you, if not, just hand out the paperwork and go. The pax trickle down from the gate a few at a time and sometimes have no real guidance as to which plane to go to, so they sometimes get lost wandering around the outdoor walkway.

 

[jml2992]

Re: Go! to rebrand as ALOHA??

Boo to JO and anyone else out there that thinks this is o.k. I was only blessed enough to live in HI for a year but I really think the "aloha" of this line of thinking is non-existent. I am wondering if Mesa management is going help the countless number of Aloha employees who are scrambling for jobs. Unbelieveable.

 

[CamYZ125]

JFK. Need I say more? The gate agent controls 10 aircraft spots at one time. They could care less what the crew decides to do. If you radio Ops and ask for a final count, they will give it to you, if not, just hand out the paperwork and go. The pax trickle down from the gate a few at a time and sometimes have no real guidance as to which plane to go to, so they sometimes get lost wandering around the outdoor walkway.

Sounds like a bad system to me.

 

[Velocipede]

Re: Go! to rebrand as ALOHA??

Sick, just sick. Run a company out of business then abscond with their name.

That's one sick puppy.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

Re: Go! to rebrand as ALOHA??

This is just disgusting. I hate JO.

 

[inside0ut]

Re: Go! to rebrand as ALOHA??

Sick, just sick. Run a company out of business then abscond with their name.

That's one sick puppy.

JO in a nutshell.

 

[Hacker15e]

Re: Go! to rebrand as ALOHA??

The new Frank Lorenzo!

 

[CSK]

talk about rubbing salt in the wound

 

[jml2992]

Really bums me out because I've been ferrying to MHV with my trainees for the last two weeks and I see three of their old -200 models out there. The Funjet (Aloha bought it from Hooters) is out there too. I remember seeing that on the mail ramp/interisland concourse waiting for cabin service. Still one of my favorite 37's.

 

[CrippleHawk]

I have noticed that the stocks have jumped up rapidly from .19 cents to .53 cents ever since the settlement with Aloha. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. But what will happen next?