Looks like Hilton Head station is closing, just announced today...

 

And the bleeding continues..........

 

Is it just me or is this yet another sign the Saabs have very little life left here at Mesaba and in the Delta system?

 

Damn this is a huge read!

 

With a very ironic name!

 

I'm with you. I've been thinking all along that 110 pilots is just the beginning.

I just can't imaging there NOT being a turboprop around at ALL to fly into some of these small cities.
Can anyone honestly say that there is not/will not be a turboprop market?

 

yeah...Someone in GS today asked JR in when the next saab leases were up, and he said more saab leases are due up this "winter"(He said they were in addition to the 10 already leaving us this year).

Then someone asked if there is a plan to replace them with a diff turboprop...and he said that delta is not looking at adding any more aircraft to their fleet, they are trying to offload them. That was his response. He also talked about an above normal decrease in block hours for the saab and crj200, and did hint at more furloughs. He said we are going to be approx 200 overstaffed. He did not say that is how many they will furlough, just that we are indeed still overstaffed even after the current furloughs.

It was kind of humerous how many questions he was asked today. He did not do too much answering. He did not paint a very bright picture for Mesaba in lights of Delta's desire to decrease DCI aircraft capacity. He mentioned, like many already know, about how the only way to reduce capacity now is from airlines like mesaba and comair b.c. of contracts with all the other airlines.

 

I don’t think Big-D like any turboprops painted in Delta colors.

 

Yea though I just had a Skywest E120 pilot on the jumpseat recently and asked him what was happening with them. He said that they were supposed to be slowly replaced with 50 seat jets but that had been halted and for now the E120 fleet was being kept as is..... My guess Delta likes them better than replacing them with even more 50 seat jets.

 

All that talk that being wholly owned putting us in the best position was as much garbage as "we need to secure our core 49 Saab fleet, its in the metrics, ect." It's more like being WO put us in the position of trying to play pick up the soap in the prison shower.