With American parking regional aircraft, Envoy will need 47 percent fewer pilots

American Airlines Group has told Envoy Air's pilots union it plans to park 59 small regional jets and transfer 47 larger regional jets away from its subsidiary carrier.

As a result, Envoy will need 47 percent fewer pilots than it has today, the Air Line Pilots Association said in a note to pilots on Thursday.

The news comes about a month after the pilots voted down a proposed contract that would have given Envoy Air larger aircraft to fly in exchange for a pay scale freeze until 2018 and other concessions.

ALPA-MEC chairman Bill Sprague said the company intends to park 59 Embraer 140s and transfer 47 CRJ-700s to another third-party regional carrier to operate under the American Eagle brand.

"Currently the future looks very bleak," Sprague said, adding that the carrier won't have any aircraft to replace the ones they are losing and anticipate that a displacement bid for pilots will be available shortly.

Last week on American Airlines Group's earning call, president Scott Kirby confirmed that the airline is in final negotiations with a couple of regional carriers to fly new, larger Embraer 175 aircraft and will announce at some point who will fly them using the American Eagle brand.

It will not be Envoy Air, the regional subsidiary owned by American that used to be called American Eagle, Kirby said, reiterating that "Envoy is still an important part of the airline."