BigGuns

Actually I pitty the shuttle america guys that fly this. No trip rigs, duty rigs, or day rigs in exess of 5 hours will make for alot of mins day off at 70 or so hours of flying. Shuttle flying is alot of legs with little block time.

Killer51883

its been a while since ive been on a shuttle flight but if its taken a simillar hit as the rest of LGA's passenger loads it makes sense to use a smaller airplane than a MD-80. Every time i was on it there were less than 30 people on the flight. The 170/5 will probably make it alot more affordable for delta to run those routes.
Now as far as the mainline/regional yeah i wish the 170 was a mainline airplane (then i would have a mainline job), as should be any airplane painted with a mainline paint job.

Big guns, unless Shuttle opens an LGA base which i doubt, the trips will be no worse or better than any other shuttle trip so it wont be that big of deal for those guys as far as QOL is concerend.

dojetdriver

Good, I hope the MEC took the company to the bank for a blatant contract violation.

Are they UNABLE to do that now as scope was tossed out the window?

We can go through the shoulda-coulda-woulda and all the reasons why scope was given up all day long.

If the DAL number crunchers decided that the EMB is a more economical aircraft for that route, so be it. Those aircraft should be on a mainline certificate being flown by mainline pilots.

BigGuns

If Delta does not require you to dedicate a/c to the shuttle, product will truly be destroyed. You can not run the shuttle though MDW or ATL-DCA then to LGA (with any reliability that is). Also I think life might be pretty ruff. DCA or LGA ops/gate/mx are not happy about it at all.

Florida Flyer

Starting in January, we’re beginning the transition to Embraer 175 jet aircraft on our Delta Shuttle operations between New York-LaGuardia and Washington, D.C. We fly the LGA-DCA route currently with MD-88s except for two daily flights operated by Shuttle America with E-175s.
On Jan. 5, half the LGA-DCA schedule will be operated by MD-88s and Shuttle America E-175s offering the same ground and in-flight service as today. On March 28, the route will be operated entirely by Shuttle America E-175s.

It appears that the souring economy is continuing to take a toll on this profession. Although I would very much like to see the Shuttle routes flown by mainline MD-88s, the economic reality is that these routes are better served by a large RJ at this time. Due to falling passenger demand, smaller capacity and lower operating costs are in order (i.e. flying smaller planes with lower crew and fuel costs). Supply must be adjusted to the current demand on these routes...and flying half filled, gas guzzling MD-88s is not the answer. (That's not to say that when the economy improves and demand rebounds that these routes should continue to be flown by RJs. If the demand can support an MD-88, by all means it should be flown by mainline).

The current bad economic times illustrate the benefits of having a lower cost structure available to the airlines in the form of large RJs (70-88 seats) operated by regional crews. Every large regional RJ is not the spawn of Satan...by "right sizing" the airplane to the route, everyone benefits:

The mainline company benefits by improving profitability on the routes.

Mainline pilots benefit because their company is making more money (or at least reducing losses) on the large RJ routes. This allows further investment in international expansion or long haul domestic routes and airplanes...thereby improving the mainline pilot experience.

Regional Pilots benefit as more jobs are available in the profession. (I'm sorry if people disagree with me here, but the regional experience is not all that bad once one is a senior FO or upgrades to CA. I'd personally rather see more decent paying RJ jobs at the regionals. This would increase the total number of pilots employed in the industry, and that benefits the most number of people. It's a bit utilitarian, but I'd rather see more pilots paid a lesser (but decent) wage at a regional than fewer pilots paid more at a major/legacy.)

Finally, Passengers benefit by having more schedule choices and lower fares on selected routes.

Again, my whole philosophy rests on "right sizing" the airplane to the route structure. I believe that large RJs operated by regional carriers have a role to play, just as 777s operated by mainline have a role to play. As economic circumstances change, so to do the selection of aircraft. I just hope the economy rebounds soon so that the major airlines can resume expansion and increase hiring.

dojetdriver

Oh really? Have you worked at a company that has the best pay and the best work rules? ALL it does is put a target on your head to get that cost down when the legacy gets into financial trouble. Making that "decent paying RJ job" just a regular RJ job.. IE; AWAC, ACA, XJT, etc.

The regional is NOTHING more than a contractor that has to serve the whims of the legacy they feed for. When the crap starts rolling, it rolls down hill.

JungleBus

Florida Flyer's response sounds like it was written for an assignment in airline ops class at Riddle or something. Anybody out in the real world for very long knows exactly whom all the outsourcing has benefited... it isn't you or me, that's for d@mn sure.

ExperimentalAB

One would think that the "outsourcing" lesson has been learned by American business, right? Well Boeing is the latest to take a hit -- their supply chain is sufficiently outsourced that they have little direct control in keeping their 78 project rolling on time!!

KC10 FATboy

Just wondering, why is this such big news since we've known about this for quite some time?

-Fatty

Rhino Driver

We are talking about the Shuttle right? Doesn't get much better than service on the hour!