Regional Airline Operations

AA34

Well-Known Member
How does the flying work for a pilot that flys for a regional that is contracted my multiple mainlines? Example, if you fly for Skywest, are you United Express on one trip and Delta the next? Or is it based on your base?
 
Seems like it's based on your base, but I'm new here. Out of Tucson, I flew some United Express flights, and out of Phoenix, it was for US Airways Express. Some bases serve multiple carriers, but I don't have that much experience yet.
 
Usually they don't mix airlines in a single day. Delta doesn't like it when your delayed United flight subsequently delays their flight. But you might fly United one day and then wake up in the morning and viola! your're Delta Connection. That's the hardest part of my job, remembering whether to say United Express or Delta Connection...
 
For XJT it depends on base. We used to have some pairings in the ATL base that had Delta flying one day and UAL the next, but that got changed real quick when mainline was getting pissed for delays caused by a snafu's in a competitor's operation the day before

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Or if you are RAH, you have a 'hybird plane' that is gassed up with Airways gas that flies DCA to CMH for Airways. Then does CMH to MKE for Frontier using the Airways gas.

Not sure what the crew does :)

Wanted to make sure I got that in there.

And then jumps on a 140 to fly an American Connection flight? :D
 
Or, you must ride REP crew from DCA to DAY (displacing 4 passengers in the process) to bail out a Frontier 190 that had a crew time out earlier in the day to fly passengers to DEN.

The gas thing too though...
 
Or, you must ride REP crew from DCA to DAY (displacing 4 passengers in the process) to bail out a Frontier 190 that had a crew time out earlier in the day to fly passengers to DEN.

The gas thing too though...

Didn't they put the kibosh on that fairly quickly? I know our company was flipping over that. I heard they did it just a few times before airways rolled in on that.
 
Or if you are RAH, you have a 'transition jet' that is gassed up with Airways gas that flies DCA to CMH for Airways. Then does CMH to MKE for Frontier using the Airways gas.

Not sure what the crew does :)

Wanted to make sure I got that in there.

Fixed it for ya.
 
It varies based on your base. I don't ever switch in the middle of the trip but I usually rotate between Delta and United from one week to the next.
 
By and large most Skywest flying tends to be exclusively one carrier depending on the base. But there are some exceptions. Salt Lake does mostly Delta, but they also do a small amount of United flying. Most of the time it is done on different days and/or trips.

The Brasilia does a Delta flight to Gillete WY from Salt Lake. Then at Gillete they switch to United and head to Denver. The same thing used to happen in SGU. The LAX flight was United, then it would change to Delta and head to SLC.
 
At CHQ, all of our trips are separated. Delta, USAirways, American, and United. We have a bunch of blue tails that fly around the system as you all know. However, if you're on reserve, you can get tossed on anything. They try to deadhead you on the same airline you are going to work, but if it makes more sense or you ask not to sit for 4 hours, they'll put you on that United flight to go fly for Delta. On a 6 day span of reserve, I think my record is 3 different airlines.

This is the reason I NEVER make announcements with the airline we're flying for.
 
What happens is, even though I've been at CHQ for 5 and a half years, my family has no idea who I actually fly for! When you're on reserve, all bets are off. I've flown/deadheaded on every one of our codeshares in a single day. They say they can't DH you on one codeshare to fly for another (usually when you're begging them to help you out), but when they're desperate, whetevva, they do what they want.
 
On reserve I've flown for different partners a number of times, but always on different trips.

I've taken to referring to the generic livery planes as bi-planes: 'cause they swing either way.
 
That's the hardest part of my job, remembering whether to say United Express or Delta Connection...
Reminds me of a funny story passed down about a E170 capt who was throwing a fit to SOC because Delta ops wouldn't park his UA express bird in DCA.
 
Or if you are RAH, you have a 'hybird plane' that is gassed up with Airways gas that flies DCA to CMH for Airways. Then does CMH to MKE for Frontier using the Airways gas.

Not sure what the crew does :)

I got stuck on a couple of those "hybrid" trips. Don't know how most pilots handled it, but I limited my time on the PA to avoid the inevitable mix-up. Then I quit.

I'm still amazed RAH got off as easy as they did for pulling that •. No idea why the mainline managers didn't call for blood.
 
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