They are making money. You seem to think they are losing money and they are not. XJT was bought to get rid of the competition and to get a foot in the door with Continental. skywest was the ones that made the contracts that are not making money on the books. It was a very well thought out plan to make more money over the long run and you are being short sighted with the current money issues (even though they are making money). They are paid more than enough for all the new flying they have received to cover the buyout of XJT.

 

Your probably right. But SkyWest has always looked out for SkyWest..
When the dust settles , i think ASA side will be fine...

 

I never said that they were stupid. In fact I said the opposite. Indeed they're smart, and I'm pretty sure they could build up Express Jet into a lucrative business like Skywest if they wanted to. To imply that they're having buyers remorse for purchasing Express Jet and ASA is saying that they are stupid. I'm pretty sure the knew what they were getting when they bought them.

 

Yes, you implied that they are very sophisticated and know what they are doing.

But that's why I am puzzled by all these arguments about smoke and mirrors etc. All the arguments in this threat boil down to the believe that INC is out to get XJET - for being a union shop or whatever.

I am sure they looked at all the options and came to the conclusion that it isn't worth their time and effort. Maybe they could have done more - who knows - but I assume they explored pretty much every avenue.

INCs MO is to deploy capabilities (assets and pilots) where they can be most profitable. SKYW owns the equipment - XJET does not (not sure about ASA). SKYW can move things from UA to AA or DL as they have been doing. I don't think XJET can do that since UA owns the gear (I know there was some AA flying but that was extremely limited from what I understand). And if UA finds a lower bidder - which they apparently did with C5, flying goes there....

I have no dog in this race. But there is value in bringing some rational thinking into the discussion. That will help potential new hires to form their opinion instead of clinging on to false hopes.

It sucks for everyone at XJET but I don't think creating "what if's" and "could have's" is meaningful.

 

Even if L-XJT is going out of business 12/31/17, they still need to recruit in order to complete flights until that day. So of course they won't tell anyone when the doors are closing, assuming they knew the date certain. They'll recruit until they furlough. As for your other questions, the senior pilots may leave via the CPP since that is a seniority based program. But if Skywest does shutter XJT, I wouldn't count on anything other than a preferential interview at Skywest. They may save a little money on taking any CRJ type rated pilot so maybe that helps your chances of being hired over at Skywest. But I'm solely speaking of the ERJ side.













Skywest made a mistake when they bought XJT. The mistake wasn't the actual purchase. The mistake was in having negotiated a previous CPA with a 16% pilot concession cost savings built into it. That's the same CPA Skywest got stuck with when they finally pulled the trigger in buying XJT. So there were stuck with a money losing CPA they negotiated. Luckily for them, they were able to shorten that money losing CPA that they negotiated by 3 years. That's three less years of being stuck with their money losing CPA. I'm sure that if they can convince UAL or anyone else to pay them a rate that would be profitable to operate the 145s, they'd go for it. But until then, they are stuck with losing money on their CPA so they are slowly and methodically decreasing those loses by letting the aircraft expire. It is true that they can easily make XJT profitable if they gave them some of the profitable 175 CPA flying. But you are right that it would also cost more simply by pilot compensation costs. So it makes sense not to do that from an upper management (non-front line employee) point of view. And by the way, the TA that was voted down was a MAJOR concessionary TA, more so on the ERJ side but also on the CRJ side.

As for the rehiring and retaining of XJT people by Skywest, they would need people anyway. The cost of hiring people will still be there regardless of XJT being shuttered. So there is no additional incurred costs associated with that.

Anyway, it may be in Inc's interest to show a loss on the XJT side as a convenient reason to continue the draw down of the money losing CPA. That's if you are the cynical type But I'm not saying that is happening because I don't know. The CPA is probably unprofitable enough to not need to do that anyway, if that's what Inc wanted to do.

One last thing, it's a little disingenuous to say they have been trying to say that are trying to cut costs when it costs millions to run to sets of middle and lower management, two sets of staff, two maintenance departments, two dispatch departments, two scheduling departments, two payroll departments, etc. If they can save money (and charging XJT) by having one IT and one benefits department, they can save money on all the other duplicated departments. It is all smoke and mirrors designed to make you think that they treat all their employees fairly and equally.

 

Thanks you for this rationale perspective. None of us knows for sure but this makes economic sense.

 

If skywest voted in a real union. You might see a desire to merge. Or, if expressjet shrank enough not to matter.

 

The last time lxjt had less than 1000 pilots was in 1998. Will they make it 20 yrs above that level?

 

Only 800 to go. I think when they close down DFW this year (2017) and then announce that they are closing EWR in the next year, I think the number will drop very quickly.

Like I have said before, I don't know why we have any FO's left in EWR right now anyway. Commutair is giving a very nice bonus and also upgrading like crazy (upgrading people in the new hire classes). They are moving the 145's into EWR at the start of 2017.

With the AA owned offering more money the first year (58,000) than what I made the last couple of years as a 9 year FO at XJT, I am not sure why the IAH or ORD FO's are still at XJT either.

I think more guys will leave the bottom of the list than those that go to UA on the CPP at the top of the list for the next year.

*These views are my own personal views and beliefs or guesses and do not reflect any management of any other airline including XJT, SkyWest, AA, UA, Commutair/UA, or the cities of EWR, DFW, IAH, or ORD

 

So I saw on ExpressJet's Pilot Recruting Facebook page that some of ExpressJet's pilots began training at United.
Does anyone know how many of those pilots were reserves? First Officers? Captains?
Im curious what their position was at ExpressJet and what made them attractive to United.
This is the first class I've heard of going to United (I'm sure there's been many more and more to come)