Originally Posted by
air101
I wouldn't bet any money on it. SkyWest want's to get rid of ExpressJet, but its not going to happen as quickly as they want. Y'all are too expensive and without a concessionary contract, you're not going to get any cheaper to operate. Mainline partners certainly aren't going to just willingly pay more for the flying they get today for way cheap, ex: United. You guys may get some improvements in the near term but the goal in the end will be to wind down operations.
Uh, I don't claim to be Nostradamus, but I believe I just described the likely end of ExpressJet in near perfect detail. I guess I did it in a way that was a little rough on the comprehension end? XJT pilots are going to give no concessions because we are not spineless, and would rather see the end than give one penny to lower this career any further toward the gutter some would welcome without compunction. But they need some airplanes flown in the period between the beginning of the end of XJT and the actual end. Our failed TA had no guarantee of any aircraft or provisions detailing allocation of aircraft between the 2 sides of INC. Scope=ZERO
We will not approve any TA that doesn't guarantee something in terms of aircraft allocation, because we are not believers in management horse5#ft. If/when that TA does happen, with 100% better scope than the first attempt, if there are enough pilots left at that point, we will be minimized to the maximum. Most of us at XJT are fine with this because we will never volunteer to live in the gutter. We know careers will be better for everyone if we refuse.
UAL doesn't really have a choice in not coming to some terms. They will be facing the same problem American is dealing with at Eagle/Envoy right now. Wishful, empty threats with no operators capable of staffing flying, and thus extremely narrow options for carrying out the threats. Maybe if they could somehow evenly distribute the capacity across all RJ vendors, maybe a small chance, but then risking increasingly horrible staffing performance at those carriers. How do you staff a cheap regional where no one wants to worK?