It was my understating that 12 ATR's are coming up on end of life. Maximum cycles or hours or some other milestone. And since I heard this news from a captain sitting standby it's got o be true.
Originally Posted by
What
The Form 10 says that AMR can start putting 12 ATR a year up for bid, why does everyone think that they are gone automatically. For the ATR to be gone someone else has to come up with a certificate that the ATR is the largest airplane, develop a program, qualify Check airman, sim instructors and finally train the crews. AA SCOPE states that the only thing over 50 seats besides the Eagle CRJ (must be operated by Eagle pilots) can be 39 ATR. So no Colgan Q400. I could be wrong but this is my understanding, we need people to stop being so scarred, this is what AMR wants so we get locked in to a Industry standard contract until the next decade! Everyone keeps saying early next year the ATR will be gone, do the math... Allot of crews to be displaced.
Around 100 ATR pilots in Dallas, it probably cost about 25,000 to fully qualify us into a new aircraft, that's 2,500,000 Dollars worth of training. I don't think Colgan can provide the feed that cheap right away.
Colgan 5 year Q400 Captain gets paid $64 and first year FO $26
Eagle 10 Year ATR Captain gets paid $ 80 and first year FO $25
FA Probably make 5 dollars an hr more so ad an extra 10
*there are other factors as well, contract and benefits but lets call those equal.
Colgan could probably do it 23 dollars an hr cheaper, with fuel at around 3 dollars a gallons that's around 8 gallons or around 60lbs of fuel. Remember that whoever takes some of the Eagle flying will use Eagle ground crews, and we already supply allot of ground handling for other airlines at the outstations. I am sure the ATR with an Eagle crew can overcome this number extremely easy. Not to mention if nothing extreme happens Eagle is about to cut their pilot cost substantially.