PilotAnalyst

I was able to get the Delta Contract and breakdown the actual scope . I also have AA's and hope to break that one down in the next day or so.

I unfortunately do not have UA TA's scope contract and would like to see it to run a comparison study. The biggest pieces I am missing are the sliding block hour ratios at United as well as the actual contract language. If anyone could post the contract language of the scope portion that would be great.

forgot to bid

I'm looking it over, I like the layout.

I was curious, did you want to add the exemption for CHQ and Shuttle America in 1.D.2 to the exemption list?

flybywire44

It would be interesting to see an analysis of airline code sharing as well.

Thank you so much for your time and effort.

PilotAnalyst

Thanks for making that point, I updated the exemption list. I was hoping to distill the Scope down to its basic theme's and points. It seems like ALPA and the IRS should have lunch, with how complicated they write stuff.

I was hoping to finish a comprehensive analysis of the Regional Code-Share first if I can get the UA TA before starting a Code-Share comparison.

PilotAnalyst

Ok I've gone through:

Delta Scope
American Scope(current TA)
United Scope(current TA)

I would post it all here but I don't think they would fit. Anyway I am hoping to do a comparison in the next day. The best way I can figure to do it involves running each airline with the other airline's scope. This would include two scenario's of declining and increasing mainline fleets. It will be interesting to see how each Scope holds up under both Scenarios. If their are any other thoughts on how to do a comparison let me know.

Bucking Bar

Constructive comment ... What about Codeshares, Joint Ventures, alliance partners? Small jet scope is just one part of these agreements.

PilotAnalyst

Ok here is the Regional scope comparison

American Airlines

United Airlines

The comparison compares different Scope Policy's. So the American Airlines or United Airlines comparison shows what American's/United's Regional Aircraft profile would look like if they applied Americans, Deltas, or United's TA policy.

It also takes these different policy's and applies three mainline growth models

1. Mainline Fleet Shrinkage by 10% a year
2. Mainline fleet stagnant year over year
3. Mainline Fleet growth at 10% per year

There are charts/graphs that reflect these scenarios. It should be noted because of the difficulty of projecting block hours, it applies only fleet limits in the previously mentioned scenarios. Its likely United won't see regional fleet numbers beyond 650 if their current mainline fleet stays stagnant, due to the 120% block hour clause that is suppose to go into effect on signing. However, I feel the general representation of the different scope policy's effect on a given airline is accurate.

It should be noted that even though Delta's and United's policy look similar on paper, they come out drastically different in the model. This is due to Delta's Narrow-body purchase being contingent on the contract being signed, United's is not. Because of this, I apply the Narrow-body purchase portion of the Scope from Delta Policy and not to United's policy.

This is a small portion of the total scope, and it would be interesting to run a comparison on the rest of it.

todd1200

How do the scope limits affect code-share agreements? I mean, can mgmt. subvert scope clauses by signing a code-share agreement instead of a fee-for-departure agreement? Essentially turning an "express" or "connection" carrier into a code-share partner that flies equipment that would not fit under a scope limit?

Flyby1206

They could do that, but it would be subject to the codeshare restrictions in place for the contract.

The big advantage of contracting out RJ feed is that the mainline partner has complete control and authority over ticket price and schedule, and the mainline partner collects all the revenue. In the codesharing example the mainline partner would have zero control over these things, and cant collect any direct revenue from the flight.

PilotAnalyst

I have a post that shows a chart the explains the relationship between different airline regional models.

Regional Airline Models

It would be difficult to turn a regional into a Codeshare. They would need fire up their own marketing and ticketing department, and assume a whole lot of new risk. It could be done, but their would definitely be a steep learning curve.

Fee for Departure and Pro-Rate agreements are well covered under most regional scope agreements.

To really Code-share you would need to operate as a fully fledged independent carrier without a mainline flag or livery.

SkyWest has been the closest to being successful with their Airtran partnership, but even that was more of a self branded pro-rate agreement. It would be tough also because with a Code-Share agreement you lose alot of the "protections" afforded in a Fee for Departure or Pro-Rate agreement, and could easily be "hosed" by your "partners" if they withdraw their networks.

Only way I could see it work would be in Alaska/Horizon's case where you have a very established route structure and network and could be ok if you suddenly lost much of your codeshare. Otherwise it is very risky for the Regional.