Future of United Express
 

Something's gotta give folks. Scope is coming down the pike and so is October 1. False hope, baseless fears, I'm here with my popcorn so bring it on!

Big questions include:
-what will scope limits mean for the 76 seat fleet in a couple months?
-SK said single class 50 seaters may/will see a significant reduction...which ones?
-where tf does the 550&700 fit into all this?

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UA has a furlough provision requiring all 76-seaters be reduced to 70-seaters if certain criteria is met. I’m pretty sure UA said they have the engineering ready to take seats out when this happens.

The exact details of the scope clause will be very important. Particularly the definition of an active airframe

If they all get reduced to 70 seaters, then they won't be as efficient as they are now. I wonder if that will affect the fleet mix

As a guess I think 6 seats out of an ERJ is still going to be far more economically sensible than any mainline airplane on many routes now and well into the future.

We are a cheaper workforce and smaller jets with lower cost per hour of operation. I don’t think UA will be overly concerned if 6 seats are no longer available. Sure it’s not ideal and is 6 seats of lost revenue, but they will still make money if they can fill a 175 up to 70 pax and keep their fleets at same or similar levels

Delta is already doing it on OO 175s and probably other carriers as well.

Obviously as pointed out, all this will be defined by contract language regarding scope when the time comes, I’m not sure what UAs scope demands in regards to airframe numbers etc...

UAX Fleet
 

Seems like a good time and place to remind everyone of this google site. I'm not involved in it and I don't know who runs it, but they do a really good job. I do wish they would add a column for who owns each tail.

https://sites.google.com/site/united...fleet-tracking

How does everyone's July schedule look? Or has it come out yet?

I imagine the 50 seater exclusive regionals are going to see some sort of consolidation. Air whisky and expressjet are the only regionals so far who are downgrading pilots afaik.

There is no way having 7 different regionals for uax makes any sense. Having office staff that is required for 7 regionals vs 2-3 is not economical at all.

Whiskey just cancelled about 2/3 of their downgrades.

Keep an eye out on July 1st