AirTran has just announced an agreement with SkyWest for CRJ feeder service into Milwaukee. Under the terms of the deal, SkyWest will initially operate five CRJ-200 aircraft–in SkyWest livery–between Pittsburgh (PIT), St. Louis (STL), Canton/Akron (CAK), Indianapolis (IND), Des Moines (DSM), Omaha (OMA) and Milwaukee (MKE). Any additional service resulting from this agreement is not yet known.
We are concerned by our management’s move to shift flying to another carrier, even as growth at mainline AirTran has stagnated for nearly two years. This affects all of us, as pilot career progression could be slowed by such outsourcing.
Furthermore, it’s unclear how the utilization of RJs in 2010 would be any more successful or profitable than it was to use them in 2003, when the company ended AirTran Jet-Connect. What is abundantly clear, unfortunately, is that our contract allows management great latitude to give your job to other airlines, including non-union SkyWest.
We believe today’s announcement is an affront to AirTran pilots, as well as all AirTran employees, who have worked so hard to build this airline, only to potentially have their jobs outsourced. The name AirTran reflects the quality service to which pilots and other employee groups have largely contributed. For this reason, we find it ironic that management has been critical of Republic Holdings for destroying the Midwest Airlines brand while they risk weakening our own product.
To be clear, we are encouraged that management is looking for ways to grow profitability. We believe, however, that over the long-term, AirTran pilots are better suited to performing flying for AirTran, and we are hopeful that the Company will realize the benefits of having AirTran pilots do that work. Southwest and JetBlue don’t let others fly their passengers, and neither should we.
Be assured that the MEC is exploring its legal options to determine if this agreement violates our scope language. In the meantime, we will be closely monitoring this arrangement and working with the Association’s Economic & Financial Analysis Department to quantify the impact to our pilots. Of course, restrictions on the Company’s right to outsource will be a subject of negotiations during our upcoming discussions on scope. While recent events no doubt highlight the importance of Section 1 of our collective bargaining agreement, you can be confident that the MEC’s guidance to the Negotiating Committee on scope did not require any such reminder.
We need you to participate now. We need every line pilot to attend SPSC events to ensure that management knows how seriously we take this potential threat to our profession and to our job security. You will soon receive information on the next SPSC event. Please make every effort to attend and demonstrate to management not only that you are concerned by their actions to harm our brand and outsource our flying, but also that you are determined to achieve a new contract with better scope, better pay, and better work rules. Remember: we ARE major airline pilots, and we DESERVE a major airline contract.
Q: Does this partnership affect our claims of having the most consistent product in the sky or North America’s newest all-Boeing fleet?
Not at all. We maintain all the attributes that have made us successful in the past – it’s a key reason we have structured our partnership agreement to differentiate the brands.
AHAHAHAHAAHHAHAH
"Why no, of course it doesn't, next question."
Go try and book a flight on airtan.com and take a look at the size of the skywest logo and the "Service provided by SkyWest" disclaimer. It's smaller than the freakin paypal logo. Customers won't even notice it all, they'll just see the 99 dollar fare.
I've heard these same lines at Midwest a few years ago...
Q: How is this partnership different than a traditional codeshare arrangement?
Under a traditional codeshare, the flying by the regional carrier is done on a contract basis without regard to the number of passengers onboard, the regional partner typically paints their planes into the larger carrier’s livery and their employees wear the larger company’s uniforms.
Under this marketing partnership...
Q: If this is the right way to go, why don’t we operate the CRJ-200 ourselves?
This partnership allows both AirTran and SkyWest to do what we do best. For us, that is offering the best low-cost, high-quality service in the sky using North America’s youngest all-Boeing fleet and for SkyWest, it is operating the CRJ-200 from MKE to these six cities. SkyWest is the world’s largest independent operator of the CRJ and has vast experience with this aircraft and type of operation.
Q: What approvals did AirTran have to receive before beginning this partnership?
AirTran required no approvals to enter into a partnership with SkyWest. This partnership is also consistent with all labor agreements
Asking AirTran management for scope covering all marketing, code-share, and partnerships on aircraft over 50 seat, 500 mile stage length, 70000 lbs GTOW, etc...
Are they getting painted in Great Falls, Montana, like they did with the Midwest paint jobs?
tucson. i took the last of the midwest connect painted birds down there last week. that is, i took it there to get painted. i do not know if they're painting them directly into that air tran picture paint job or if they're using other planes for that.
oh there was a brand new, still green, q400 at our hangar in tucson too. don't know what that was for???
Similar Threads
Linear Mode
