Originally Posted by
Hedley
Mostly bored on a layover and I do look at boards that involve United. Sometimes it’s fun to watch a good dumpster fire on various pages as well. I don’t think that the 50 seaters will be gone tomorrow, but I do think that they are starting to be on borrowed time at this point. There are contracts in place and replacement lift, schedules, etc would have to be worked out. I also don’t trust United management. They could very well invest in the single class 50 seat product in an effort to milk it for all its worth. They could also say what people want to hear in an effort to keep hopes up and string them along so that they serve United’s needs until they announce bad news. They were hard selling Aviate and XJT as a career path to United right up until the day that they announced that they would be letting one regional go. They may breathe some life into the 145’s and 200’s and keep those carriers around for a while, or they might shut another regional down and put good people on the street. I’d say that either scenario could easily happen in the next 3 years or so.
I see UA putting too much money into the 145 right now. They are attempting to not do D checks by flying some of the LR's instead of the XR's. However, I also see them getting ready to put in a large amount of money into them and I can see them staying around for more than 5 years. New interior, onboard entertainment system (movies in the app, but no ground internet), painting the exterior (one just came out of the paint shop about 2 weeks ago, and a new FMS system to completely replace the ones onboard now. I see a lot of money going into the 145's and that means it will have to be a few years down the road for them to justify that expense.
Also, you UA guys held the scope line and that kinda backs him into a corner with having to fly the 50 seat planes. And I did hear the 200's are on the way out over the next year or two for what it is worth (AW with the 550).