Well, to be fair all the regionals love koolaid drinkers. It’s what keeps them alive.

 

That’s true of every rung on the ladder. Braniff, Pan Am, and Eastern were all the hot item at one point in time. In another 20 years United could be a thing of the past. Mesa and Kalitta will still be here though. They seem to survive everything.

You’re absolutely right about people beating their chest about being the best United feeder or to point fingers at the worst being a little ridiculous. United will continue to move flying around to the lowest bidder. The beatings will continue until it becomes cost effective to bring it all in house or consolidate the regional flying into just a couple of big regionals.

 

It’s very illogical to call someone a “koolaid drinker” referencing YX and OO guys, when both companies top the DOT statistics. Facts are facts.

And yes, it’s EXTREMELY funny that United awarded all this flying to a carrier that continues to struggle to man their fleets (facts again) and then ask for YX to pick up the slack (more facts).

Working for a regional owned by United is not a positive. Arguably the riskiest mainline to be owned by, judging by their managements decisions. Always 3-5 years behind AA and DL. I’d be careful.

 

I doubt it. The majors have already gone through their consolidation. The regionals have not and won’t until the majors let them.

 

DOT statistics also say that regional carriers handle their own bags.... uh huh...

 

Eh. The 550 surprised everyone and seems like a good conservative bet. The C5 crash in PQI pretty much has stayed out of the news. UA is getting better at this.

AA has *way* more problems than UA.

 

I hope that you’re right, but I’m not a believer in too big to fail. Deregulation killed a few and 9/11 accelerated consolidation. If they ever allow cabotage or some other major industry changing event any of our big 3 could very easily go away. I don’t think that it’s all that likely, but after growing up in an airline household and picking this as my career as well, I’ve learned to never say never.

Regional consolidation could be interesting to watch. Many have contracts with several airlines, some with only one. Since the legacy airline often owns a share of the various regionals, I wonder if consolidation is a matter of letting them do it, or ordering them to. It’s a weird mix when you consolidate companies that really don’t own that much. They may own some of the planes, but none of the routes. For now United seems content of beating one with the other. My guess is that I’m long retired before United decides what they want to do.

 

Yep. Got on the computer to check in the night before and it was canceled.

 

Nice.
Anyone confirm that was due to crew shortage?

 

Does it really matter? Who expected ExpressJet to make an instant turnaround? How long did it take Republic to emerge from bankruptcy?

14 months, IIRC. ExpressJet has scarcely had the time under new management to get a single class through initial.