As JB responded to me during CQ, "Who would want to buy us? We have the most senior, highest paid workforce with some of the oldest planes"
I was asking him (jokingly) if we could be bought out by Southwest. Wouldn't that be great though, a purple Dash.
Same questions went through my head when I heard this, but I have an idea that I know most don't agree with. 1. They don't want our planes. 2. They can't fly our routes because A) besides HHH, we don't have our own routes, we get what the RJ's don't want. B) there are already to many large RJ's flying for mainline so unless they put 50 st RJ's on them, that"s out. I just thought that with all the news out because of the Colgan accident, and the thought that regional pilots are not experienced enough, even though it would be costly, he might be interested in buying experience. If RAH keeps expanding, they are going to need more pilots and instead of hiring 1200 hr pilots, they can have 20 year captains and a large number of experienced F.O's. JUST A THOUGHT PEOPLE!. Now, i can't wait to see the replies to this!
Same questions went through my head when I heard this, but I have an idea that I know most don't agree with. 1. They don't want our planes. 2. They can't fly our routes because A) besides HHH, we don't have our own routes, we get what the RJ's don't want. B) there are already to many large RJ's flying for mainline so unless they put 50 st RJ's on them, that"s out. I just thought that with all the news out because of the Colgan accident, and the thought that regional pilots are not experienced enough, even though it would be costly, he might be interested in buying experience. If RAH keeps expanding, they are going to need more pilots and instead of hiring 1200 hr pilots, they can have 20 year captains and a large number of experienced F.O's. JUST A THOUGHT PEOPLE!. Now, i can't wait to see the replies to this!
the only way that would make any sense is if he started you all at 1st year pay.
I don't think RAH will buy ANY regional....Bedford's tasted the good life now....we're going to buy Continental next.....so his dream of E190's in CAL colors will come true.
OK, I will bite. While I highly doubt this rumor is true, I will play along and see what the possible outcomes and benefits may be...
RAH would get some experienced pilots.
RAH would probably be buying a stronger overall relationship with US Airways.
RAH has a Dash type fleet now, and could expand its Q' fleet to serve Airways.
RAH needs to expand the 11 airframe Q fleet or lose it...gotta justify costs.
RAH would get a number of Dash qualified mechanics, parts, and pilots.
US Airways would get cash now to help them through the bottom of this downturn.
I could see the new Dashes being moved out of the northeast to some degree, and moving out west in support of Denver and maybe PHX ops. Piedmont would be more spread out. Piedmont would probably lose some -100's, and gain some -400's.
As for financing, RAH still has a little banker friend known as Wexford Capital, who has been very helpful in expanding Bedford's business in the past. IF need be, I could see Wexford buying up a lot of stock (driving up the street price and giving them some instant return), and entering into another 10 year business relationship with RAH. Wexford was the single driving force behind converting RAH from a prop fleet to an all jet fleet, and made the first 170 and 175 acquisitions possible.
Again, this whole idea seems far fetched, but I will say that there have been a lot of rumors floating about lately to the tune of RAH buying more pieces of Airways (besides the 10 190's recently purchased). Airways is hanging in there, but sure could use cash. The 190's were good for them, but those were the only airframes that could be sold due to the minimum fleet size requirements of the Airways pilots' CBA (the 190 was the only plane not included in the minimum fleet size, and Airways had already shrunk the rest of the fleet to the contractual minimum). I would not put it past Airways to sell other planes that can still fly profitably just to raise short term cash.
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