Cujo665

You can’t compare the legacy costs from being a large FFD and trying to create your own branded flying from scratch. Having good investors to get you $125M sounds great but isn’t all that much when it comes with all the opening day debt they all had.
Via has no debt. Their planes are owned outright, not leased. They’re building a brand 1 plane at a time, one route at a time and not trying to fly 90 planes on day one. They’re growing organically, have plans in play for larger planes as the loads increase... $125M isn’t even 1/5th of the cash on hand with zero debt. Doubt all you want. They’re going to do well. E-jets and B737 being discussed as loads grow. Their point to point vacation, resorts and high volume direct routing are working well for them.
Hate all you want, it’s working

By the way, talking about CASM is pointless without first having the revenue to support it.
Hence, a small plane going full all the time doesn’t go broke. It was Robert Crandal that made that comment/observation, and I’d say he knows a lot more about the airline business than either of us.
Continue hating, it’s working for them at Via

minimwage4

TSA is selling MRJ slots too if you want them. They're due in 2020.

Cujo665

Not my decision, but with the mainline scopes those MRJ’s may go cheaper than an E175/190. Something I’m sure they’ll look at; although they are happy with their EMB 120/145’s, at least for now. I think they’re probably looking at some of either the AA or JB E190’s....

For those interested; the Company says competative for the 135 side FO slots on E120 are CME and 500 TT. Expect to be filling positions in fall.

Arliss

What's their most immediate fleet plan? How many aircraft are they taking per month? New routes?

I'm at a dead-end 145 regional and am intrigued by this home basing. Would this be a good place for someone in my position? Would another local regional or Atlas/Southern be a better idea?

Can anyone comment on the training (where it's performed, quality, etc)?

FlyingKat

Right you have no debt because you bought a bunch of worn out EMB 145s and 120s cheap. Makes for less cash up front, but kills you in the long run in maintenance costs. Look I could care less about Via air. Hope it works out for you. But to say nobody ever tried to run 50 seaters in a LCC or Ultra LCC environment is not true. It has been tried and it failed every time. The only way 50 seaters work is to pair them with larger aircraft to spread the costs out over the entire fleet so you can make money. Eventually the costs on 50 seaters will eat you alive without larger aircraft for them to feed.

The Airline industry is littered with the carcasses of management that thought they could reinvent the wheel and succeed with a business model that failed others. Maybe these geniuses at Via air have come up with something that may work. But the odds are they won't. Geez everytime you post I can remember reading what the Expressjet guys were saying, and see Tom Moore in the crew room telling us bigger planes are coming, this is just the beginning, etc, etc. Hell I expect you to start talking about A330s just like Fly I did.

Like I said. Best of luck to you. You're gonna need it.

FlyingKat

I'd head to Atlas or Southern.

FlyingKat

Naahh...Bedford already has those locked up

fantm11

From what I gather most scheduled traffic "hubs" out of AUS and SFB. There are two applications on the website...one for the 120 and another for the 145. Which one does more work out of SFB? Thanks.

Cujo665

What are your times? Places like Omni & Kalitta have upped their mins to the point the average guy being hired now is 8,000 TT. Spirit is hiring FO’s from regionals before their 1st year probation is up. Jetblue is grabbing them around 3500 TT. The home basing, no crashpads, is a big plus for places like Via, Omni, Kalitta, Atlas and a few others are starting to do it too. No commuting to sit RAP in crashpads and positive space tickets are amazing QOL improvements.

Via plans larger birds in about 2-3 years they say. Owner favors E175/190 and VP/DO favors 737. MX management is now run by large plane folks (320/737 type guys).

Street CA published mins are 5000 TT and 1000 pic Jet. If you’re typed in the 145, which you are, they make allowances for that and the 5000 isn’t a hard number. Starting street CA is $78k salary. You get the same pay regardless if you’re sitting in the hotel, deadheading, or flying all day. Day off pay goes above guarantee salary.

They’ll schedule to work two blocks of 9 days each month with at least 2 of those long call at home (nobody has ever been called from long call at home). Or if you’d rather knock it all out at once they’ll build one long trip too. Their biggest flaw is they are always late late late giving people their monthly schedules. It’s the only really big complaint I’ve heard.

Cujo665

145 is the growing fleet and does most of the flying.
The 120’s are making money on EAS routes, but they’re only running two of them currently.

It’s a small family owned company where once hired you do get to meet and interact with the bosses all during training. Their computerized procedures trainer crapped out, so the owner took the class himself out to the maintenance hanger at SFB, pulled a jet out onto the ramp, and sat there with the guys working flows and call outs all day with APU running to keep everybody cool. The owner is typed and occasionally even comes and flys.

He owns or is involved with several other Fortune 500 type companies.