Piedmont Airlines, Inc.
Date: July 5, 2011 Interoffice Correspondence
To: All Flight Operations Personnel
From: Michael Scrobola
Subject: Base Closure/Market Realignment
I write to you today to let you know that we have made the decision to close our LaGuardia crew domicile. The effective date of the domicile closure will be September 1st, 2011.
I realize this decision affects not only those based at the LaGuardia domicile, but also those in our satellite domiciles. We have struggled with this decision since the announcement of the proposed slot swap transaction with Delta. Since that time, we have progressively seen a marketing shift towards both the Philadelphia and Charlotte markets. We believe our assets will be more efficiently utilized from our other domiciles. Today, there are no daily RON aircraft in LaGuardia which has made it very difficult to develop sound and productive schedules. Also complicating our ability to sustain schedules which produce an acceptable level of productivity is that we only operate (4) flights on Saturdays in the LaGuardia market. Going forward, flying will be distributed amongst our remaining domiciles with the majority being allocated to Roanoke and Middletown. Salisbury will see a slight increase in lines as will Charlottesville.
Again, we understand this decision is not pleasant to hear. We do not take this decision lightly as we recognize the hardship that it may cause for many of you. A domicile base bid will be published in the very near future illustrating where openings will be available for bid. We wanted to announce this information as early as possible to afford those affected as much time as possible to plan accordingly.