SkyWest, hiring?

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CHICAGO, June 10 (Reuters) - SkyWest Inc. (SKYW), a regional jet service provider for Delta Air Lines (DAL) and bankrupt United Airlines, on Tuesday said it signed an expanded 11-year deal to provide regional flights for United Express.

Relying on regional carriers that can feed traffic to the mainline system is one of the four points of United's plan to transform itself into a viable competitor in the struggling U.S. airline industry.

The deal provides for a multiyear rate agreement, the terms of which were not disclosed. SkyWest will be reimbursed for operating costs plus a base margin and performance-based incentives.

United, the world's second largest carrier, is a unit of UAL Corp. (UALAQ), which filed for bankruptcy in December.



SkyWest, which is based in St. George, Utah, said the deal calls for it to operate a fleet of 140 aircraft including 55 turbo-props currently serving the United Express fleet. It will also fly another 55 50-seat regional jets that will be in service by the end of the year and 30 70-seat regional jets scheduled to be on United Express routes by summer, 2005.

The agreement also includes an option to operate an unspecified number of additional regional jets.

In a separate statement, United said the terms of the memorandum of understanding are retroactive to January 1, 2003, and provide a "significant economic benefit" to United.

A final contract must be approved by the boards of both companies and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
 
Kind of early but I heard the TA passed or will pass. I guess the pilots flying jets with 99 seats will be paid the same as the guys flying jets with 50 seats.
 
SkyWest has only 50 seaters on the property now; the 70 seaters will be a new element to the equation. It'll be interesting to see Delta's reaction, since one of the dudes on flightinfo was saying a while back that their scope clause applies to ANY flying SkyWest does, not just the flying it does for DL.
 
Any good news for skywest is good news for me!
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SkyWest has only 50 seaters on the property now; the 70 seaters will be a new element to the equation. It'll be interesting to see Delta's reaction, since one of the dudes on flightinfo was saying a while back that their scope clause applies to ANY flying SkyWest does, not just the flying it does for DL.

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Kind of...

If SKYW takes delivery of 71 seat-plus aircraft, they're no longer eligible for the Delta Connection codeshare, I think. Unless it's waivered like the DAL/CAL/NWA domestic codeshare deal.

By no means quote me on that because I'm not all that sure of the terminology. Ya know that plain-language contract that we have makes it a little easier for a single attorney to interpret rather than calling in the entire legal staff with the other languages.
 
So far it doesn't mean anything for ACA. Skywest, along with Air Wisconsin, was already a UAX carrier along with ACA.

Skywest is a nonunion carrier and I believe that their management has already imposed pay cuts and work rule changes there.

This may mean that if the ACA TA passes, then ACA stands a good chance of being awarded a contract as well.

Doug, I wasn't familiar with any DAC restrictions on 70 seaters. There has been a lot of speculation that we might get 70 seaters (or bigger) as well, and that is not something than I've heard anyone mention.
 
Our "TA" passed which was the hinge-point for the United contract. 70-seaters are on the way- right now they're saying March/April 2004.

We did not take an outright pay cut. Skywest did need to cut costs to keep competetive in the bidding with United and Delta. All management took 20% pay cuts a while back. There have been numerous changes to cut costs across the board. Our "pay cut" was integrated into this TA in the form of paying current 50 seat pay for the 70 seaters on the way. I still get paid the same as I always have been, it's just now when I climb into a 70 seat aircraft I don't get any more money for the 20 extra passengers in my keep. We still get our longevitiy increases, but nothing else. The only work rules that have changed is the reserve utilization- it was complicated enough before, now it's impossible to understand!

As far as the contracts go, things there are changing all the time. It used to be that Skywest could not fly from a Delta hub to a United hub. Well now we do LAX-SLC as United Express, and SLC-SFO, SLC-DEN as both United Express and Delta Connection. Crazy times in the airline world.
 
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