Originally Posted by
DjHubberts
I do not get why CAL is conforming to the rest of the industries lower bar, instead of taking advantage of their position as a leader and raising the bar for the rest of the airlines. Example... They are the only ones left serving food for free on most of their flights. Instead of advertising this fact and beating up the other majors with this, they cut the number of flights that have meals.
Example... CAL has only one regional airline working for it. This allows a great amount of flexibility when the weather goes down the crapper in IAH or EWR (both notorious for bad delays when the poop hits the fan...) XJT gives up slots, cancels flights, etc, so that CAL flights can maintain more ontime. XJT can drop a IAH-LFT (Layfeyette, LA) turn when there's a 3 hours delay program going, and transition the airplane onto the IAH-DFW flight where the plane is going to be 4 hours late b/c its stuck on the ramp on a refuel stop AT DFW and can't get to IAH. Bring in another carrier like UAL, NWA, AAL, DLA have all done, and the swaps are no longer there that worked so well in the past....
My point is that the bean counters that are now running CAL are just doing that... Looking at the hard numbers and not the intrinsic numbers that make an airline great
It not only works better as one company, but it has all but publicly been said that XJT in fact comes out cheaper. XJT has an economy of scale that no one else touches. Our 274 aircraft are operated as efficiently and with more reliability than any fleet anywhere. (99.9 numbers here). CRJs not only have upfront costs of training, certification to the ops spec, etc, but also need all new GPU's (they are AC power not DC like the ERJ). CAL has no way to positively spin "taking us back" and therefore will suck up the cost to go ahead with this....
No offense to CHQ crews but when the operational reliability decreases, costs increase, and px dislike shows through, CAL is gonna be really regretting this decision. We will still have close relations with them (200+ a/c) and will be available for future opportunities.
Branded flying is a last resort as far as management is concerned. It is a big question mark to investors and management. They say that it could be operational by Q2 '07. Lots to get in order, ticket sales, gates, routes, etc etc etc. We would not do like independence and compete in a Hub (ala IAD). We would do a lot of underserved communities point-point. It is easier to establish those routes when you only need to fill 50 seats. The XR's can fly some long legs too...
As far as hiring.... I wouldnt be worried. The training department has been ramping up to run 80 pilots/month through in Jan/Feb '07. 35 CAs have been leaving each month for CAL, SWA etc. 35/mo for CA attrition only....thats really good folks.
Keep your eyes and ears open. We are all curious to see where the chips fall.