I don't know if Via does this or not, but Allegiant makes a large percentage of it's profit on ancillary fees and services such as hotels, car rentals and other "vacation" package products. You can kind of look as the actual ticket as almost a loss leader to get you in the door.

And Via does similar things including subsidized flights with ski resorts, other resort/vacation areas, and even a few EAS routes.

It’s a young airline, no real debt, and is slowly growing organically. I think they’ll do well.

50 seater future
 

Been in the industry for five yrs and flying for a major now, I don't see any future for 50 seaters any more. Yes they might make some money for the time being, but the future of regional carriers is not too rosey, even with the 76 seaters. Eas routes are just another way to make few bucks but we all know what happens to Eas feeders. Examples Silver, great lakes etc. Via is just another example of something that will be temporary and has no future. Especially with the chief and assistant chief pilot who they have, who are pure arrogant jokers and think were some sort of legacy carrier and the next big thing. Will be surprised if they even stay in business by next year.

CLASSIC!!

...filler

They lost a bunch of EAS due to poor performance and pilots are leaving for other similar carriers... bright future ? doubt it .

Check your facts. Our Chief Pilot is one of the best guys I have met in the industry and we have no assistant Chief Pilot

I know of exactly zero pilots who have left recently for “similar operations”...

Depends on the yield. 50 seater with no premium seats is a hard plane to make profit with. It's got the same costs of the 76 seater, but no premium seats and less pax capacity.
It's very easy to fill up a plane with passengers. It's hard to turn a profit by selling those seats. If you only sell 45 seats per flight, you need to fly a 19 seater and fly 2 flights and oversell a few seats. It's much cheaper than the 50 seater jet. Or fly a 76 seater with 9 premium seats and have a higher yield. This is how the industry works. No-one flies with 90% expected pax load. They'll either increase yield or fly a smaller plane. The reason why even regionals are moving out of CRJ200's is that it isn't in a great spot for this equation.

It absolutely does not have the same costs. The fuel burns are vastly different between an E145 and an E175. So are Acquisition costs.

Industrywide average is They’re flying with 85% load factors (from current FAA data) link to statistical report https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=5 Check the report I’ll link again here. Break even is just 80%. That leaves a margin of around 5%. Start at page 29.
http://www.oliverwyman.de/content/da...c_Analysis.pdf

Those stats are industry average. There are carriers doing high 80’s and others doing high 70’s. So to say nobody is doing close to 90% is factually inaccurate.

When the market they’re serving is a 45 pax average load, the E145 makes money. It makes even more when 20 seats are being subsidized by resorts. It also lets them operate direct flights in markets that won’t support an Allegiant or Spirit A320.

They are not a fee for departure carrier so as their loads grow, they’ll be positioned to add larger planes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see AA or B6 E190’s go to Via in a year or so.

Here endeth the lesson. Now, opinion....

None of their pilots went laterally. They all went to much higher paying jobs, 3 to Omni, 1 to Fedex and the rest went to high pay 135’s.

Their chief pilot is a great guy, works like a slave, but sticks up for his pilots like nobody I’ve seen at other regionals. There is no ACP, regardless of what the other guy said.

If I hadn’t left for one of those jobs flying heavies, I’d still be there. It’s a good company, the owners give a crap.... example... the owner took a bunch of new hires out to the hanger to practice flows in a real Plane.... yes, the owner is typed, and occasionally flys. They started the APU and he spent the day with them helping them learn flows and profiles. Show me an owner that does that in 121. They treat their pilots well. There is no ready reserve, there is no crashpads, they provide you a hotel as soon as you leave home. Positive space tickets to from work, you keep the air miles. Crew meals on duty days over 12 hours.

Are they perfect, no... they’re still learning how to build schedules so consider your schedule basically the days you’ll work, you may end up elsewhere... but it doesn’t matter. You’re salary for your regular schedule and lost flying doesn’t effect pay. Day off flying is pretty well compensated, could it be better, sure.... but overall it’s a good company to be at.

Yep, great guy! Not one pilot would find fault in him!!!! GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT!! And besides, Via offers a much better QOL for many of its pilots than just about any regional. 90% of the pilot group has been at other regional and understands that this is a good place to work. Why hate on Via? It's 121 time getting paid better than regional average (true salary, not bonus). If it folds because management isnt guiding the ship right, well, we all had a good run and have built up our 121 time . .whats the hurt in that???? It also has the "potential" to be a great place long term.

Also, as far as regional getting rid of the 200 has also a lot to do with gate space at the major hubs. So they have to utilize larger aircraft with less frequency to the secondary markets, or abandon them all together. Via has positioned itself that gate space is not as much of a concern and still provide service to these secondary markets . . . pretty smart.

As others have stated, they have a LOT of things to iron out as they grow (I think they are trying to grow too aggressively personally) ... but good place to work, with a great, tight pilot group.