The New American Eagle: A Breakdown of the Future AA Feed

[J Cole]

With the re-branding of the American Eagle name and the US Airways merger, the American Regional feed will be (and already is) changing significantly. Being a rather visual learner, I decided to group all the current regional carriers for AA and US Air in one spot along with the portion of their fleet allocated for AA/US Air flying. The results are interesting to look at, though, obviously, the information is readily available. This post is not meant to be a statement of any sort but, rather, simply a listing of the facts. Their may be some errors, as I'm sure I could have misplaced a number here or there and my sources may not be perfectly accurate.

That said, these are all the regional carriers which will soon be flying under the American Eagle brand.

Air Wisconsin:

• 71 CRJ-200
  • Air Wisconsin operates these aircraft in a codeshare agreement with US Airways. Currently, they do not have codeshare agreements with any other major airlines.

Chautauqua :

• 14 ERJ-140
  • This codeshare agreement represents the last vestiges of the regional feed that American inherited from TWA. Until recently, these flights were branded as American Connection. Currently, all of these aircraft are based in ORD.

Envoy (American Eagle):

• 47 CRJ-700
• 59 ERJ-140
• 118 ERJ-145
  • Envoy is a wholly owned subsidiary of AAL. Currently all Envoy ERJs are slated to be retired by 2017.

Expressjet:

• 11 CRJ-200
  • Expressjet operates 11 CRJ-200 aircraft out of DFW as part of a 4 year agreement with American Airlines. These aircraft are branded and painted as American Eagle aircraft (old livery).

Mesa:

• 47 CRJ-900
  • Before their merger, Mesa had codeshare agreements with both US Airways and America West Airlines. They currently operate 47 CRJ-900s for US Airways out of PHX and CLT.

PSA:

• 35 CRJ-200
• 14 CRJ-700
  • PSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of AAL and was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of US Airways Group. They currently have an agreement with American Airlines for delivery of 30 CRJ-900s with options for 40 more.

Piedmont:

• 33 Dash 8-100
• 11 Dash 8-300
  • Piedmont is a wholly owned subsidiary of AAL and was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of US Airways Group. Piedmont pilots are not based in the main US Airways hubs, but rather at outstations.

Republic:

• 19 E-175 (American Eagle)
  • Republic has a 12 year agreement to fly 47 E-175s for American Eagle out of Chicago with options for 47 more. Delivery rate is 2-3 per month.
• 38 E-175 (US Airways Express)
• 20 E-170 (US Airways Express)

Skywest:

• 12 CRJ-200 (American Eagle)
  • Skywest operates 12 CRJ-200 aircraft out of LAX as part of a 4 year agreement with American Airlines. These aircraft are branded and painted as American Eagle aircraft (old livery).
• 14 CRJ-200 (US Airways Express)
  • Skywest has a 3 year agreement with US Airways to operate 14 CRJ-200 aircraft out of PHX that began in December 2011.
  • Additionally, Skywest has 4 CRJ-900 aircraft in US Airways Express livery that are currently parked.

TSA:

• 3 ERJ-145
  • TSA has an agreement to fly 3 ERJ-145 aircraft out of PIT with US Airways.

Total American Eagle fleet size: 566 Aircraft

Percentage of flying done by Envoy: 40%

 

[jgheggie]

Is envoy solely owned by AA? Or can they contract and operate under another carrier such as delta like the other regionals do?

 

[J Cole]

Is envoy solely owned by AA? Or can they contract and operate under another carrier such as delta like the other regionals do?

Envoy is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group, which also owns American Airlines. That said, I am not aware of any prohibitions which would prevent Envoy from flying for another carrier. In fact, American Eagle (Envoy) did fly briefly for TWA as Trans World Connection.

 

[derg]

I don't think DL needs any more 50 seaters.

 

[Bigey]

So I've been out of the airline game for about a year now. I've never realized how diverse AAL is when it comes to regional flying. I was shocked to see ExpressJet flying CRJ's for AAL (Hell, surprised Expressjet flies CRJ's period). How fast things have changed. It's somewhat funny to hear all the names of all these 'other' airlines flying for AAL when in fact it's like 3 airlines total since they all own eachother (ASA, Xjet, Skywest, etc) and Republic (Chatauqua).

 

[USMCmech]

Envoy (American Eagle):

• 47 CRJ-700
• 59 ERJ-140
• 118 ERJ-145
  • Envoy is a wholly owned subsidiary of AAL. Currently all Envoy ERJs are slated to be retired by 2017.

Total American Eagle fleet size: 566 Aircraft

Percentage of flying done by Envoy: 40%

I really wonder if AA can replace all the Envoy ERJ lift in 24 months.

That may be their goal, but my guess it takes much longer. Even if they cut a bunch of RJ routes, that is a LOT of seats.

 

[J Cole]

I really wonder if AA can replace all the Envoy ERJ lift in 24 months.

That may be their goal, but my guess it takes much longer. Even if they cut a bunch of RJ routes, that is a LOT of seats.

Yes, it appears they want to give us 150 E-175s, however, Envoy is actively shrinking, even now. That said, they may postpone some of those ERJ retirements as well.

 

[HVYMETALDRVR]

I can only speak for "the taco" but IIRC our 140 contract is up in Jan 2015. The general concensus is that it won't be renewed again, truth ismany of us were surprised that it was extended in Jan of 2013.

 

[Soul Brotha']

I really wonder if AA can replace all the Envoy ERJ lift in 24 months.

That may be their goal, but my guess it takes much longer. Even if they cut a bunch of RJ routes, that is a LOT of seats.

I wanted to make sure I read that correctly(All ERJs gone by 2017?), Holy crap!

 

[J Cole]

I wanted to make sure I read that correctly(All ERJs gone by 2017?), Holy crap!

Take the 2017 date with a grain of salt - it is what is on wikipedia. I wasn't able to find a reliable source, but somewhere, there is the actual fleet plan with n-numbers and return dates from the leases that were renegotiated from the 2011 bankruptcy.

Edit: Here is a related article. http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/amr-and-embraer-seek-regional-jet-refinancing-377516/

 

[jtrain609]

I really wonder if AA can replace all the Envoy ERJ lift in 24 months.

That may be their goal, but my guess it takes much longer. Even if they cut a bunch of RJ routes, that is a LOT of seats.

Why not? It's not very hard. If your aircraft disappear at a 2 to 1 ratio (EMB-145's for EMB-175's), and you go from 177 airframes to, say, 80 airframes at another carrier, then you only need to train 800 pilots in 24 months.

That's only 33.3 pilots per month, which is less than we're doing right now.

ALL THE AIRPLANES sounds like a lot until you look at the numbers.

 

[USMCmech]

Why not? It's not very hard. If your aircraft disappear at a 2 to 1 ratio (EMB-145's for EMB-175's), and you go from 177 airframes to, say, 80 airframes at another carrier, then you only need to train 800 pilots in 24 months.

That's only 33.3 pilots per month, which is less than we're doing right now.

ALL THE AIRPLANES sounds like a lot until you look at the numbers.

Are there that many E-175 airframes available over the next 24-36 months?

Getting pilots trained doesn't seem that difficult, especially if the airline is parking 2 old jets for each new one. Getting 80 airplanes accepted, fixed, painted, ect. seems like it would take longer.

 

[jtrain609]

Are there that many E-175 airframes available over the next 24-36 months?

Getting pilots trained doesn't seem that difficult, especially if the airline is parking 2 old jets for each new one. Getting 80 airplanes accepted, fixed, painted, ect. seems like it would take longer.

American made the order in December.

http://atwonline.com/airframes/american-airlines-orders-150-embraer-e-175s-and-70-bombardier-crj900s

 

[bretthullrampage]

Is envoy solely owned by AA? Or can they contract and operate under another carrier such as delta like the other regionals do?

No. Envoy (its going to take a while to get used to this name) can not fly for other airlines. Being owned by AAL would be a bit of a conflict of interest if they were to fly for another carrier.

 

[H46Bubba]

No. Envoy (its going to take a while to get used to this name) can not fly for other airlines. Being owned by AAL would be a bit of a conflict of interest if they were to fly for another carrier.

Not necessarily. DL allowed Comair to bid for United Express and USAirways Express flying. Of course operational expenses were deemed to high and our bids were higher than other carriers.

 

[Firebird2XC]

Not necessarily. DL allowed Comair to bid for United Express and USAirways Express flying. Of course operational expenses were deemed to high and our bids were higher than other carriers.

That's the catch- we're our own company... but... not really. AA likes to keep us close to the chest so they can control the situation better. Dutch door action, really.

 

[cezzna]

For an outsider, it seems like seeing 'the big picture' of regional airline flying is analogous to playing speed chess, everyday of your life...............against Bobby Fischer.

 

[Murdoughnut]

Man, it really looks like AMR is squeezing Envoy out of the picture - if you can't sell it, disassemble it. I'll go on record as saying Envoy is disbanded entirely within three years. I hope to god that in three years I can re-post this and apologize for how wrong I was, but the business side of me feels like the company is circling the wagons. The re-branding is what sealed it for me

 

[Firebird2XC]

Man, it really looks like AMR is squeezing Envoy out of the picture - if you can't sell it, disassemble it. I'll go on record as saying Envoy is disbanded entirely within three years. I hope to god that in three years I can re-post this and apologize for how wrong I was, but the business side of me feels like the company is circling the wagons. The re-branding is what sealed it for me

Squeezing Eagle out? Nah. Diversifying to avoid having a singularly large chunk of its work force that might suddenly break for other opportunities? Yes.

Eagle's fleet plan calls for the return of a large part of the -145 fleet and has for years. That pre-existed all this -175 hoopla. That they're trying to get us to negotiate with ourselves for airplanes we were almost assuredly getting anyways just speaks to the nature of their character.

CEO or not, Parker still has to answer to the board, and they like to keep hands on the product. Envoy/Eagle is going to evolve considerably over the next few years but we're not going away.

 

[Jafari RastaMan]

Man, it really looks like AMR is squeezing Envoy out of the picture - if you can't sell it, disassemble it. I'll go on record as saying Envoy is disbanded entirely within three years. I hope to god that in three years I can re-post this and apologize for how wrong I was, but the business side of me feels like the company is circling the wagons. The re-branding is what sealed it for me

Mr. Murdoughnut, do you know what the current cost comparison is with Envoy and these other Regionals that are flying for American? As long as Envoy's cost is competitive, I think your prediction will be wrong. If they arent, then I think you are right and that deal to keep 170 airframes would be pretty sweet.