Not according to WesternSkies

 

How many reserves do you think we have?

 

Plenty in DEN. A years worth. Plus a ton of instructors that could go back to the line in a crunch. ORD - not so much.

I don’t doubt that SkyWest would not be interested in picking up this flying.

 

Aren't you a mesa fella?

 

Yeah, my best friend works at SkyWest and I have another at ExpressJet in IAH. My buddy at SkyWest is tired of sitting on reserve and having to go to Sim every 90 days to stay current in DEN. Meanwhile, I have flown over 900 hours and had three months of reserve in the past 12 months.

I am sure some SkyWest pilots like their quality of life, but as a pilot, I would prefer to fly. For SkyWest pilots to say they can’t absorb 25 Ejets is a joke.

 

For those pontificating on the Aspen thing.. Cat C vs D, E170 vs CRJ, it has little to do with the airplane. Back when Republic became one list with Frontier, Midwest, Lynx, Chautaqua, etc, I ran into the program manager for the E170 fleet and asked him about the Aspen market for the merged company, since the Q400 was going into ASE.

He said there was nothing special about the CRJ with respect to ASE and that Skywest was briefing a no-go around approach in certain circumstances for that field. Perhaps a Skywest guy can speak to this, but I was told that below a predefined altitude, if they lost an engine, it was briefed that they would land no matter what. If the runway was closed suddenly, then they would land on a taxiway.

When I asked about getting the E135 or an E190 into there, I was told that they looked at everything in the fleet (which was then Q400, E135, E140, E145, E170, E175, E190, A318, A319, A320) and nothing could meet go around climb gradients (single engine) with the exception of the Q400.

When I asked about doing the same thing as skywest with our jets, I was told that it was a "union issue". That "skywest could put the best pilots on the ASE flights" and that our union wouldn't allow us to have a special group that is qualified separately. (yeah, it's a union problem, LOL) It was determined that "no go around approaches" were outside our risk profile and that we would exit the ASE market as the Q400s left the fleet.

Anyway, supposedly less about equipment there and more about risk profile.

FWIW

 

LOL. “Best pilots”. Pilots bid it. We now get 1hr extra pay for every ASE landing (formerly 86hr min month. Average block 50~).. they do get 4 days of sim.. and sim every 6 months between aspen recurrent and 12 month CQ... but its all about the single engine missed... CRJ700 is the only aircraft that could do it.. GoJet tried. But the FAA denied there application.. I think the A220 will be the next aircraft there after they resolve the wingspan issues...

 

Cat D aircraft cannot circle to land and there are no "straight-in" approach minimums in ASE. It is is a box canyon. So I would think that would basically limit most (if not all) airline jets to VFR day only.

 

No can’t absorb 25 jets with the reserve staffing we are running.

We are fortunate to be running a healthy normal 20%
reserve staffing for normal airline ops. The fat days are gone.

 

They were purchased by Republic and ownership was transferred to United in bankruptcy. The 12 newest 175's at Mesa were also ordered by Republic and transferred to United and then finally Mesa and may possibly be coming back to Republic if they ever leave Mesa.

I doubt Republic cares whether we own the plane or United.