First off I'd like to express my disgust with how the regional system works in the cycle of contracted flying going back and fourth. Even if I get to keep my job for another day it still makes me sick that it comes at the expense of a large group of other people living life just like myself. I feel for you guys and wish it could be different. This actually effects the industry as a whole but many people just see the short term benefit to themselves. In the end it will all wash out.

I wanted to start a thread to see if anyone has any real information as to why AMR decided to start contracting out flying from their own contracting company to another. Not just the old cynical APC view but a realistic view of what logic they used in their decision and what long term financial benefits they are hoping to achieve with this movement.

It just doesn't make sense to contract out flying that has already been outsourced.

I can think of at least three things that really don't make sense with how they gave this flying away.

• Skywest and Expressjet are kind of what could be considered the premium of regional carriers. Sure they are just regional carriers but they have been around a while, have made a ton of money, never went BK, hardly ever lose money and have a wicked heavy pilot group with respect to seniority. I can't imagine SKW or XJT are doing the flying any cheaper. If anything you would think it would be more expensive. Why not some cheapo (Gojetz style) carrier?
• ERJ vs CRJ - Does anyone no for sure if one is more expensive to operate than the other? It would seem as if the CRJ is. I only say that because of the operational speeds and altitude differences. I know that ERJ can get up to the mid 30's easily fully loaded. That CRJ doesn't usually make it up there especially fully loaded. This has to impact efficiency.
• Transitional expenses - New paint, facility changes, and certification process have to cost money as well. Seems like more unnecessary spending.

I'm sure there are other drawbacks to the whole CPA that I'm not thinking of. So what factors were so cost beneficial that swayed them into the shift in flying. I have some understanding of business principals but the normal ethics seen in everyday business do not apply to aviation for some reason.


Thoughts?