Originally Posted by tallpilot

Does United own the ZW fleet? I think not but I am unsure. United is making an investment in a portion of the fleet they own. It stands to reason they will operate the aircraft they are putting money into the longest and sell the rest. Eventually every 50 seater needs to be retired simply due to age and there is no replacement currently in production.

Who operates what remains of the fleet in the interim and during the wind down period is an open question and C5 certainly has a recruiting and retention problem that is exacerbated by this announcement. My best guess is the aircraft will be operated by the carrier who can staff them.

If another United partner starts up a 145 program I would panic, until then I would assume C5 is no worse off then they were before this announcement. Wouldn't it be nice if the network carriers driving this whipsaw would provide career progression guarantees for all of their contract carrier pilots? Since they do not there is serious risk for non Aviate pilots to remain at C5 and ZW particularly but that risk has always existed.