Ozflyer

When does commutair start getting their planes to expand it to 60 as they’re saying?
are they gonna be brand new EMB145s?

njd1

We've been getting airplanes steadily since I came here almost 18 months ago. I think we're up 14 or so in that time and around 40 right now. But come to think of it I haven't seen any new arrivals here in the last few months, and this may be related to United's recent plan to reshuffle / consolidate their lift and possibly merge CommutAir and ExpressJet at some point in the future now that the 175s have been taken from ExpressJet.

New 145s is an oxymoron, as no new 145s have been made in years. Any airplanes we get will have to come from another carrier. That said, United has committed to refurbish / update both paint and interiors of the entire UAX fleet so our airplanes won't look as dated as they do right now. We have about five repainted aircraft in our fleet at the moment. Boeing / Embraer is also reportedly considering the production of a new 50 seater but I would plan to be long gone from the regionals before we would see it at CommutAir.

My bag will fit

We won’t. Minimal growth this year combined with attrition. We can hardly staff what we have now. Wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing planes getting parked or transferred to XJT due to staffing as the summer rolls around. Company says no merger... but the pilot group here isn’t fooled.

Ozflyer

would be interesting to see what will happen to seniorities with both Xjet and C5!!!how're they gonna combine it ?
any ideas?

marshal

This seems a little over dramatic to me. Our staffing is better today than it was last fall. I don't see us merging any time soon. Even if they announced it tomorrow it would be a long progress governed by ALPA merger policy.

njd1

The only perk to flying for this company on the current contract is the exceptionally fast progression. It’s still a very small pilot group so when 5-10 captains leave or 5-10 FOs upgrade everyone benefits quickly. Upgrade comes as soon as you have 1000 121 and are ready and willing to accept the responsibility.

That said no one I have spoken to at C5 recently wants anything to do with a merger with XJT as it would destroy our progression and very likely drive many of our people down the ranks as we have very few lifers here. I have also spoken to many people that have said if a merger is announced they’re jumping ship...and that is in addition to the people that have failed the rigged Aviate interview process and are now interviewing elsewhere or already have class dates. Flew with a new captain the other day who had a grand total of 40PIC and he has a class date at Frontier in April.

If management isn’t careful C5 will suffer the same fate as XJT.

climb150

I spoke with an Expressjet FO recently who has been accepted into Aviate and is still thinking of going to Frontier/Allegiant.

He did the Math and said that it would take 11 years for him to be better off at United compared to Frontier based on average upgrade time etc. That is calculated on starting at Frontier now and United in 2 years time.

At Frontier he can live in base.

Bahamasflyer

Most of the ULCC's are good, if not great career destination airlines, once you get past first yr pay. Doubly so if you have an offer NOW vs in a few years from a legacy, have no desire to fly WB, and live in base.

atpcliff

My buddy was furloughed from Lynx, at Colgan (briefly), and Air WI quite a while. He LOVES Frontier. He went there about 9 months before the contract, and liked Frontier then, a lot. After the contract, it was even better.

Startcrying

That company conference call was interesting. Hopeful this all pans out. They are betting a lot on all our upgrades staying. Better get a new contract, quick, or I just don’t see them staying or attracting new pilots, for this “expansion”. Hopefully we got some good news for us in the negotiations update email besides the LOA extension.