Originally Posted by
Beach Pilot
Word on the street is Horizon is pulling out of Alaska completely. What is the official reasoning behind it? And what is it really? Lack of pilots already?
Flying in AK was reduced 40% and that was announced last month however the reduction does not start until April 24th. Alaska mainline took over the routes and made all the QX trips very inefficient. Lots of sits in between turns..
Rumor is that the reliability, public reception of flying on a turboprop and not having QX maintenance were some of the biggest factors.
The contract only allows the company to do temporary duty assignments for pilots up to four months so the clock is ticking on what will happen to the base.
September is the month that three things could happen: They will either close the base entirely and not operate QX in AK anymore, reduce the base and only operate two Q400s until they make it an E175 base, or close the Q400 base in September then reopen the base in 2018 as a Jet base.
QX has no control of what will happen. AS marketing decides, then QX management reacts. From what Ive heard they want 10 jets in ANC by the end of 2018. AS needs a smaller jet operating in the state of AK soon to supplement the flying that the 737-4's and Combis do when they retire very soon. A 737-8 could do the flying but most of those routes would go half full and they needs those jets flying down south to keep up with their aggressive expansion.
The first Captain E175 class was just announced it has been delayed a week due to simulator challenges... The new E175 sim arrived at the Sea flight safety weeks ago and is currently being built. Most likely it is taking Flight safety longer than anticipated to build and they dont want to send people to St Louis. Not a surprise. Much cheaper to wait til the Sea sim is operational. Could also be staffing and they need those Captains flying a little longer.