Originally Posted by
TFAYD
TSA and CP were pure staffing agencies. SKYW, MESA and XY own some / most of the metal and don’t transfer it around at will.
The ability to finance the regional equipment also gives those a leg up in future contracts. AA has plenty of debt and will be happy to have SKYW buy the equipment as they just did.
It can cut both ways. If a contract is cancelled you’re assuming airplanes can be shifted at will. It doesn’t work that way. You have to be able to bid on contracts and win them while staying within legacy scope. If you can’t shop those airplanes you still have to pay the leases on them. Or pull a Republic and file for chapter 11 to get out of them. Granted, in their case they couldn’t staff the -145’s. The regional graveyard is littered with companies that owned their own airplanes.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see AW next, but that place has been a dead man walking for a LOOONG time. Nothing against those pilots as they seem like a good group.