Originally Posted by CBreezy

I would say most of it falls at the feet of Skywest who purchased an airline and, instead of merging the entities to help costs stay competive, they alienated their union properties, made them fight amongst themselves and created division. None of that is Delta's fault. Delta is just bringing flying back in-house and yes, the most expensive contactor is the first to go.

Originally Posted by ecam

We've seen this all before. Managers and bean counters don't make emotional decisions. They don't even make strategic decisions. They look at the money and do whatever they think will elevate the stock price, even if it's only temporary. Have you seen SKYW's stock? Outperformed every airline for years now. The guys in Utah are no dummies. They see where this is going. Why wait until 2019?

ASA's DL flying has been languishing for years now. DAL is flying 717s to places the regionals used to fly turboprops to. (And my DL friends on the 717 are all whining about the 5 day/5 leg trips). EV in ATL has been shrinking since that airplane arrived and mainline has been growing. Now the CS is coming and there's even less need for RJs. It's not spite, it's simple economics. ASA is the most expensive Connection carrier, (because of longevity) and that's why they are being cut. We saw the same thing at Comair, though it happened a lot sooner due to the politics of the strike and the decision to pull down CVG as a hub. (Comair also connected more passengers on Comair than to DL flights). EV's performance isn't worse than GoJet or Endeavor. That's a lame excuse. They just cost too much and DL gives lip service to quality, but prefers cost. ASA can never compete with the other carrier's longevity.

I'm sure it feels personal to the employees at ASA, but it's not. The XJT pilots seem to feel like they won, but they didn't. They are just another legacy regional that got a 5 year reprieve. Like Air Wisconsin. But the execution dates are still scheduled.

The industry trend is absolutely bring flying back in house to mainline. Not only do you have better control of the product (see Dr Dao incident), you eliminate the longevity at the feeders by hiring or eliminating the senior pilots. There will always be feed at the network carriers. But it's never again going to be like it was in the 2000s. Pilots may as well accept this and make plans to move on. I've already heard too many very senior ASA friends living out the "this is fine" meme. I feel for them. Many of my Comair brothers and sisters were in denial and were left standing when the music stopped. Learn from them. Apply everywhere and take the first job offer you get. If you don't like it there, keep applying. Get out before a thousand pilots hit the street.

Originally Posted by Wynncore

This is the most spot on assessment of the ASA situation I've read so far. It was and will always be about costs. ASA was without a doubt the highest cost regional and SKYW and leadership at ASA likely knew that Delta would not seek additional lift past the end date of the CPA.

Every RJ operator has a product life cycle (this can be mitigated by staying cheap and/or willing to accept less. Example: PSA, Endeavor or Mesa) and ASA was simply at the end of theirs because they could not keep their costs in line with everyone else in their market. There is a lot of blame to go around, most of the blame falls at the feet of Delta as they continue their never ending quest to raise profits at the expense of everyone else, especially their contractors.

Best of luck to the pilots still at ASA...apply, network and leave and don't stop trying until you're out of there.

Originally Posted by ecam

We've seen this all before. Managers and bean counters don't make emotional decisions. They don't even make strategic decisions. They look at the money and do whatever they think will elevate the stock price, even if it's only temporary. Have you seen SKYW's stock? Outperformed every airline for years now. The guys in Utah are no dummies. They see where this is going. Why wait until 2019?

ASA's DL flying has been languishing for years now. DAL is flying 717s to places the regionals used to fly turboprops to. (And my DL friends on the 717 are all whining about the 5 day/5 leg trips). EV in ATL has been shrinking since that airplane arrived and mainline has been growing. Now the CS is coming and there's even less need for RJs. It's not spite, it's simple economics. ASA is the most expensive Connection carrier, (because of longevity) and that's why they are being cut. We saw the same thing at Comair, though it happened a lot sooner due to the politics of the strike and the decision to pull down CVG as a hub. (Comair also connected more passengers on Comair than to DL flights). EV's performance isn't worse than GoJet or Endeavor. That's a lame excuse. They just cost too much and DL gives lip service to quality, but prefers cost. ASA can never compete with the other carrier's longevity.

I'm sure it feels personal to the employees at ASA, but it's not. The XJT pilots seem to feel like they won, but they didn't. They are just another legacy regional that got a 5 year reprieve. Like Air Wisconsin. But the execution dates are still scheduled.

The industry trend is absolutely bring flying back in house to mainline. Not only do you have better control of the product (see Dr Dao incident), you eliminate the longevity at the feeders by hiring or eliminating the senior pilots. There will always be feed at the network carriers. But it's never again going to be like it was in the 2000s. Pilots may as well accept this and make plans to move on. I've already heard too many very senior ASA friends living out the "this is fine" meme. I feel for them. Many of my Comair brothers and sisters were in denial and were left standing when the music stopped. Learn from them. Apply everywhere and take the first job offer you get. If you don't like it there, keep applying. Get out before a thousand pilots hit the street.