Originally Posted by
CallmeJB
Or so that we can sign a 777 contract with SonAir; they've been rumored to want 777s for a long time.
There are three ways to do that:
1. Add passenger operations, management, and administration to Southern's OpSpecs.
2. Add the 777 operation, training program, and management to Atlas OpSpecs (redundant to Southern's operation).
3. Merge Southern into the Atlas certificate.
My money (and hope) is on option 3. Merging certificates is a big task, but then you can start a passenger operation the next day, and realize several other benefits of a merged operation.
In order for #2 to happen this deal would have to get DOJ approval by end of February and a Passenger 777 up and running by end of April. Atlas makes things happen but that is a tight timeline but good luck!
I'm not sure what the 744 burns an hour but I'm sure there's a huge cost savings with 2 engines on a 14 hour flight.