theHub

Has anyone heard the latest on whether United will renew Mesa's contract for the CRJ-200 and DHC-8?

NoJoy

Not until sometime in Oct.

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hslightnin

Mesa will hear in OCT and then frantic negotiations on leases and with UAL will follow. I doubt we will hear anything till sometime in Nov-Dec

NoJoy

Probably true. Pilots won't hear anything till Nov.

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travelnate

There really aren't any alternatives to the Dash 8 DEN flying - They've played with Skywest using Brasilias already, and Great Lakes has told UA they can't get enough aircraft suitable to fill in all the routes as a strict pro-rate codeshare arrangement. United seems to be satisfied w/ the role the Dash 8s are flying. I think this is one operation that YV is doing right.

I think that Mesa may pull a SkyWest and if any of the aircraft under the CPA (Capacity Purchase Agreement) are pulled, Mesa will begin doing at-risk flying as OO is doing.

H46Bubba

Oh there's two wild cards out there that UA can award the DEN Dash flying to. I'm also pretty sure BB has his been hyping up Lynx to UA. They're already based in DEN, so there is no base and aircraft relocation to begin UAX flying. Colgan is a second option since they also have Q's and have form orders and options for more aircraft. I guess we'll find out soon! enough.

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iPilot

So then Lynx would be competing against itself (Frontier vs United). I think that would be humorous to see Republic planes being used to compete with Frontier and Midwest (most likely at a deep loss) just to make them lose money on their own operation.

travelnate

I don't believe the Mesa DH8 operation's costs are anywhere near that of a Q400. The Q4's acquisition costs are very high - these are $16 - $18 million dollar birds, whereas the YV Dash 8 Q200s are worth $7 million new.

As I understand it, the Dash 8 fleet is at a solid 12 - and there aren't any other planes that can effective service the PHX and DEN markets better.

I believe Commutair may be the only suitable option - and they're flying the "old" Horizon Q200s for Continental right now.

NoJoy

Ok so the DHC-8 may live to see another day in DEN-but the CRJ 200s on UA side may have a tougher time explaining their existance.

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H46Bubba

Lynx has their own cert right? BB hasn't really stated what he has in mind for Lynx. Noting's stopping him from stopping feed to Frontier and start feed for UA. There's no competition with Frontier since it's not on the Frontier certificate.

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