Isn’t it true that only your management (through your union) has promised that UAL will award the 25 E175SC’s if you come to a long term pilot agreement? I have seen nothing that says United has made a direct promise, and United has kept quiet.

I suspect GoJet, Mesa, Republic and others have provided United with competitive bids for the CPA. I know Mesa has. Xjet can only provide a bid once the pilot agreement is in place. So, the clock is ticking.

I hope for Xjet’s sake that the agreement is made and United awards the Ejets to Xjet. Of course, that will suck for GoJet. It is also possible that the 25 CRJ700’s are not all GoJet’s. Mesa does have 20 CRJ700’s coming off CPA next year.

 

XJT when bought from CO had a CPA with them that had first “right or refusal “ on 40 “larger” RJ’s if allowed. I think Inc is finally using that contract trigger... XJT guys can chime in on this.... Hasn’t been much talk about it in years, but I understand it’s still in the CPA...

 

You are correct in all the above. The difference this time compared to vague promises in the past is that this time management AND the union have said the same thing and they have been very specific about the actual airframes. Mainline carriers normally don't like specifics thrown around until a deal is signed and doing so is a violation of NDA which can result in those bids being thrown out, so UAL must have signed off on this release of this information. I suspect a deal is already done contingent on a specific cost and has a time limit on it, thus the big push by management to get a TA done yesterday.
Of course time will tell. We will probably know within a month.

 

XJT was a publicly owned company when purchased

Recent events appear to be fully driven by UA

 

UA promised nothing....

 

We don't know what UA promised either way.....


fixed it for you

 

I am very interested in following what develops with XJT. With attrition and growth, if upgrades in Chicago can be had in 2 years or less -- and the new contract is competitive -- XJT might be the perfect place.

I've got an availability date for the very end of the year, so hopefully things start happening sooner than later.

 

Correct. But UAL would have to approve the release of information. For a company to publically release FFD flying before a contract is signed never happens. At least I can never recall it happening and I've been around this industry... a few years.
My guess is that UAL is concerned about their 50 seat flying and this may have driven their decision making with XJT as we are their largest 50 seat feeder. No 50 seaters flying=big jets flying with fewer pax. As UAL painfully learned during the SAR episode, really big jets flying empty are a big hit on the bottom line.
Since this information has been released by management and the union, I assume they are not breaking any NDA's, which means it's a UAL approved message as if it were not approved by UAL releasing the information would sink any chance XJT ever had of getting the -175's. This means there is probably a signed contract already with a cost basis and a time frame, thus the push to get a TA with the pilots. Yesterday.

 

A different subject, but 2 year upgrades scare the bejeebers out of me. Yeah, this is an easy job. Until it isn't. At two years you probably don't know what you don't know. And you're probably flying with an FO who really doesn't know what he doesn't know.
Personally, I'd like to see upgrades stabilize at about four years.

 

Maybe, but four year upgrades would be extremely uncompetitive in today's market...