Mesa Shrinking...
 

Mesa shrinking the fleet, and moving it to China. :p Sounds like a winning plan.

"This month's traffic numbers were impacted by a number of issues most
notably a 50% year over year reduction of flying at Air Midwest, the
elimination of Dash 8 flying in our Delta Connection operation, the reduction
of 5 CRJ200s from our USAIR Express operations and the reduction of nine 50
seat aircraft from our United Express operations. We believe the reduction of
turbo prop and 50 passenger regional jet flying will enhance profitability
long term as these aircraft are replaced with larger, more efficient regional
jets. In addition, the impact of severe winter weather presented some
operational challenges throughout the month, especially for our operations in
the mid west and north east of the country," said Mesa Chairman and CEO,
Jonathan Ornstein.

http://www.reuters.com/article/press...08+PRN20080107

Its funny how they complain about the weather every month and quarter. Mesa's the only airline that deals with weather, right?

Ya, only Mesa has weather, and only Mesa gets rid of / looses planes and flying..... to be replaced with bigger jets?????

survival of the fittest my friends....................

Exactly how many threads is this now with Mesa in the title........

BUT... BUT... BUT... WAIT!?!? I THOUGHT THEY CANCELED OUR VACATIONS BECAUSE WE HAD UN-FORECAST EXPANSION AND THAT WAS WHY THEY COULDN'T STAFF OUR AIRLINE PROPERLY???

Does this mean they LIED to us??? Say it aint so!

As many as it takes.
:D

Thats right as many as it takes to educate ANYONE even considering applying to that that crapbag company.

still if/when mesa goes down i cant help but feel terrible for the 2000 (or so?) pilots who will be forced to start over. but i guess on the plus side it would solve a big part of this regional shortage when guys sign on elsewhere

Thats just it....these guys will have jobs waiting....yeah it'll suck to go back to year one and back into a 2-3 month ground school...but they will all be better off...as long as they dont go to Gojets to fly as street captains :p

Hell its a good thing they parked those aircraft because they cant staff the ones they have with the way they are bleeding pilots......

the clock is ticking on that place.....

As a former Mesa myself, I don't feel it appropriate to condemn any regional. Guys want time so they can move on. That crappy contract was in place when I got there and it continues to put Mesa's pilots at risk and continues to lower everyones morale there... If I didn't care about those guys, I'd say let it burn. But there's abunch of great pilots at Mesa (just like Sky West, ETC).

And to enter smug comments about a situation that the pilots have no control over is short sided at best. Blame ALPA and ALPA alone. Alpa was there at the signing as well. Alpa has a conflict of interest representing both Majors and Regionals and will never please everyone. Why do you think American created APA?

My two cents. Oh yeah you can blame that car salesman ___bag who runs the place too.

Is mesa shutting down air midwest?

On wikipedia it says Air Midwest is discontinuing or selling but doesn't give an exact citation, so the evidence is sketchy.

I wouldn't be surprised. Great Lakes could easily cover most of Air Midwest's territory. Not that I am an advocate of either company.

I've got a friend who has been at Air Midwest for a few years and he said those shutting down/selling rumors have been around since he got there. I do feel like I'm hearing them more than I used to but I also didn't use to pay attention.

Your right, they had no control when they chose to apply to (and accept a job from) one of the worst regionals in the industry.

I have a lot of friends at Mesa, and I know there are good guys there. It sure is a catch 22, since I want the company to fail miserably for treating pilots that way, yet I don't want all the Mesa pilots to loose their jobs.

Exactly. That place IS the fault of anyone that goes to work there and helps to fill a ground school class in today's pilot job market. There are better places to work and as long as they fill ground school classes with guys who are actually bringing the industry down, things won't improve.

-LAMA

I didn't do my homework before I took the job at mesa...ooops. But I DO feel it is appropriate to condemn an organization which doesn't respect the basic dignity of it's employees (or anyone else for that matter).

I have friends who are still there, and they suffer from some sort of stockholm syndrome...they rationalize the company's behavior in their own minds. I try to to tell them (I have rescued a number of pilots) but they just can't break out of the mold in which they have become accustomed. I suppose I can understand that up to a point, but unless you have family medical issues which require insurance and FMLA, there is no justification for continued employment at mesa. If it's just the pay cut, load up the credit card and suck it up for a year or two or three.

But new-hires have no excuse...there's enough info out there on the internet and through word-of-mouth that nobody should take a job there uninformed.

but, but, they get to fly a sweet new shiny jet!!

who wouldn't pay to have that job? /sarcasm

Does anyone have any idea where the -200s are going now that they're parked? I've heard there are a few with Delta colors on the ramp in....I think it was CAE (somewhere in SC for sure). Just curious.

Mesa's annual report is delayed. The given reasons for this was that on Sep 30 they decided to close or dispose of Air MidWest and they needed time to cook the books in terms of the impairment of assets etc. (my phraseology, the company put it differently).

I have seen no actual announcement that Air MidWest is gone, but it seems pretty certain that it is. Not to mention that Air MidWest is pulling out of EAS contracts left right and center.

Mesa doesn't and hasn't recently (did ever?) fly CRJ 200s for Delta. In CAE there's a pile of Dashes in Delta colors the results of the JFK debacle - Lord knows what they're going to do with them. They were garbage when they bought/leased them, I can't imagine they've improved much with age.

The 200s dropped from the United and US Air contracts I assume some were returned to the lease owner (I know some were since they were under-going "end of lease" maintenance, putting the right engines back on etc.) and I assume that some went/are going to China. Mesa has always been very proud of it's tiered lease arrangements, and at least the US Air drops have been known for some time.

According to an article I just read about conversions of 200's to executive configuration there's is a shortage of 200s available for purchase. I know conventional wisdom is the world hates the 200, but apparently not enough yet to stop flying them.

The thread title is Mesa shrinking, and that's generally true, but keep in mind they'll add 14 (?) "900's" for Delta over the next year and in 2008 take delivery of 10 (?) 700s for United. I must admit to being confused if the 700s are a one for one replacement for current 200s or for some of the 200s dropped end of 2007 (I think they are ongoing 1 for 1 replacements, so that's not growth).

If management is to be believed the 900 flying for Delta is at good margins and the 700 flying at United is also at good margins whereas the 200 flying at United sucks (from a margin point of view). Ostensibly that's the reason they dropped the planes in 2007, but in fact we all know it's because they couldn't staff them.

I would like to see this argument thrashed out a bit more since I have seen it before and don't understand it... while I am not rah rah ALPA, I don't particularly see the conflict of interest. Why would a United pilot care if ALPA was supporting an express carrier pilot in the quest for a better contract? In fact, in the ongoing pursuit of shoring up pilot pay scales and QOL I think this would actually be in their interest rather than in conflict with it. The APA example is apples and oranges with this argument as well because American is a Legacy not an express carrier. Just wondering in the spirit of good faith is all, not looking to start any flame battles...