What? Mesa's 900's just like everyone els. What ever hppd about PSA maybe getting Horizons CRJ's.

The horizon 700's are still at horizon I beleive. They will be sold back to Bombardie then to the next company. I know PSA is not the only company whose pilots are claiming they are going to them.

Im sure we will find out soon. Horizon is going to start phasing them out starting in the spring. All gone by the end of 2009.

No, thats why we dont have them. The company tried getting us to fly them for 50 seat rates and it was voted down thankfully.

I guess that makes sense considering that Mainline cant even offer an appropriate payscale for the 190 .

What a bunch of crapola

It's not Doom and Gloom..:o.its just reality. People talk about how bad the schedules are getting, how bad the hotels are getting...
Thing is, they have been this way all along. The only way to get a better quality of life is to find another airline to work for. The union, chief pilots all have good intentions but our management doesn't care. They are happy making decent money in Ohio and wouldn't do a damm thing to change it. If PSA gets more airplanes or better routes or better schedules it will be because it was handed to our management. They work their 9-5 m-f and that is all. No extra effort. Our scheduling dept is reactive, our contract allows the inefficiencies to go on, our dispatch is totally clueless. (OK not all but some...K.H.?) Until Doug Parker and his management group take some responsibility for the PSA management we are stuck in a rut.

I think the only way PSA is going to see more flying any time soon is if Mesa goes under. Dont they have like 90 Million to pay with only 40 Million in assets, and its due in January?

Hmm .. I have heard a couple rumblings about "lots of things happening (at PSA) after the first of the year" and "all very good .. requiring the hiring of many more people". This is all in the operations dept, but ... who knows. :confused:

HEY .. easy there. I do have to agree, some people (past and present ... A.Q. if you remember him, damn that guy was dumber than a bag of hammers ...) I wonder how they have made it this far in life. A lot of the problem is we have a lot of new people, who seem completely unable to think for themselves. Our most senior guy has been there 8 years I think, then 4, then 1.5, .... Turnover is ridiculous, something like 85 - 90%. Some of us DO give a damn about our work and try to make life easier on you guys. We dont have you swap a/c because we are bored, for instance, and the first thing I look at in the morning is if I can do away with a swap here or there.

Besides, be nice to us, when you send an ACARS for crew meals they come to me first. :D

If that much. Ever try to get into the corp office at 2pm on a Fri? You'd have better luck getting into Fort Knox. You're right, things will never change here until certain people leave.

Anything to back this up or just rumors floating about? Been a lot of noise about more furloughs, not more hiring.

Rumors of more flying are probably around due to the whole Mesa thing going on. If Mesa goes BK then Airways is going to have to find someone to fill all of those flights out of CLT and PHX that Mesa runs. Hopefully there is more to the rumor than just this.

The lines were not that bad before the furlough, and they only changed because the person who built the lines no longer works at PSA. Instead of hiring someone new they outsourced the job to PDT. Ask people at PDT these are what there lines look like. I don't know what your talking about with the hotels, in the last year the they have gotten better and I had not flown with anyone who disagrees with that. Unless the hotels have gone to heck since Sept when I was furloughed. One of the problems is that the pilots complain about everything. The hotel in CAK is not that bad. It has a lot of things within walking distance and still people whine about it. The hotel in DAB is nice right in the middle of the main drag on the mainland side of town, and people are complaining because they were not consulted before it was chosen. There is still room for improvement but at least it is working in the right direction. You are right about the contract. There is a lot of loose language and management takes advantage of it every chance they get. These are some of the things the negotiating committee needs to address for the new contract. There is always room for improvement at any airline or any job for that matter.

You are nuts. That place was the biggest dump ever! I couldn't believe they actually made us stay in that hotel!!! My CA had bed bugs and I had a roach or something in my bath tub.
Luckily i was only there once. But i made sure to NEVER get a trip that overnighted in CAK.

As for the hiring thing, I am very hopeful of it, however, I think it will be a bit before Mesa is completely done. Appeals and the whole process will take awhile. Not to mention even IF mainline wanted us to fly the -900's, company and the pilot group still have a ways to go in the negotiations for payrates. I'm hoping that after the new years that they will get back to the table for serious discussions.

And for what it's worth, I really didn't think CAK's hotel was that bad, and I overnighted there about 6 times in 1 1/2 months. The location was good as was said above because you could walk anywhere you needed to go, and having the aweful waffle was good when you got in on the last flight.

So what is the need for new hiring? 900's or is there hope of more flying starting in January. Isn't 2009 when the contract is amendable.

The need would most likely be if Mesa folded and Parker lived up to his word of wanting to give the wholly owned carriers more flying. Simply giving us more flying will not be enough to cover recalling 74 pilots and hiring more people. We would likely need new planes to cover it, unlike Republic who already has the planes. It all really depends. The contract is not amendable until I believe June or July (Do not quote me on it) and from RUMORS the company has no interest in even beginning to talk about it until they absolutely have to. We'll see. I still think it's going to be a long year, but things change quick.

When hiring DOES resume, where will new hires likely be sent with the current route structure? Of course, that could change if the airline is given more flying. I hear that CLT is a senior base. I own a home near CLT, and would consider living there if I could get on with PSA...

Thats a big WHEN hiring resumes, but if and when it does, probably DAY first. Some people when the boom was happening got CLT out of sim, but those days are probably numbered. You may be able to hold TYS but it would be close.

What you need to remember is that if it going cost PSA anything, they will not do it. They have to be forced into anything that costs money. The goal is to run this airline as lean and cheap as humanly possible and still have an airline. If getting new airplanes and/or using those airplanes to fly more expensive routes, it willl be outsourced. Thats why we dont fly into Canada anymore. It's more epensive to fly international so it makes financial sense to have the contract carriers do it. Don't forget Republic and Air Whisky loaned a combined 70 million to airways. I would expect any additional flying to go to them first, if at all possible. Not to mention, if PSA were to have a net gain in airframes, J for J would be back on the table. Neither the pilot group or management wants that to happen. Regardless of who gets additional flying, if anyone, these companies are going to have a hard time going from having people furloughed to staffing additional airframes in the time frame airways is going to want. Thats just my worthless opinion. You are all dumber for having read it.

PSA is worthless why would you want to work at this s h _ t hole? Ya, your right, why not work for free to fly a jet. I hope this pilot group says no to 900's until they fix the hourly wages, schedules, the CAK hotel, drop Keith Hauk, resolve FMLA issues, hire competent schedulers, get rid of Pam Oh has she left, speak out to the furloughed pilots just to be honest with these ladies and gentlemen and tell them where they stand,etc.. If you have dignity you will not work here as this management team continues to have no respect/regard for those who make this place operate. They treat you like garbage!

Please, I dont even want to hear it until you have to sit in a room for 10 hours a day listening to their bull****.

Just rumors. I treat management like I do the government, I dont believe anything they tell me.

What do you mean?

If Mesa starts shedding airplanes or goes under, airways is going to need that flying covered fast. None of these companies are in a position to do anything quickly with people furloughed

Couldn't agree with you more.

We at Whiskey hear that we "Allegedly" have some guys in our Training Dept. at CAE in Denver Brushing up on 700/900 training...But who the hell knows....

I think all of us in the Airways System would benefit from Mesa Dying...Even alot of the Mesa Pilots....they'll still have jobs....just working for another company

I think if AirWisky got the 900's it would show the beginning of the end for PSA. No growth, only shrinkage, and a management that does not want to grow, just remain at current levels. Couple that with us keeping the -200's, not a good sign.

There won't be any additional large regional jets at the regional level. We are already above what is allowed by mainlines contract. So any additional airplanes would have to come from Mesa going under. If that happens then i would most likely see Republic or Air Wiskey getting the flying. More so Republic not Air Wiskey cause if i remember correctly they were only allowed 50 seat airframes. Republic gets what they want. PSA, Piedmont will only get left overs or the flying that isn't cost effective for Air Wiskey, they have duty rigs.

Hey I gotta double check the contract but i think we are scoped to 90 seats....I know back in the United Days we were scoped to 100 Seats

Unless Republic plans on learning how to fly -900's, they will not be an issue in taking the flying, as scope will not allow any more 70+ seat aircraft on property. Air Wisky got a contract extension for the money they gave airways, so any additional flying would not be a mandatory thing (even though they would be a good choice from a pilot perspective since they would fly them for good pay). I personally see some -900's going away because USAPA wants to regain scope and there are way to many RJ's in the system in relation to mainline aircraft, and what is left being jet-wise being split between Wisky and PSA.
DISCLAMER: ALL SPECULATION!

We had 73 Captain jumpseating the other day....hes on the USAPA Board....they dont want the 190's unless they get a fair Pay Scale from them....They claim negotiations with the company are going suprsingly well. He had mentioned a big problem with this LOA 93 that was signed back during their first concessionary contract. He seemed to think things will turn around as long as the Union is strong enough...again he blames ALPA for all the problems...which I can sympathize with....ALPA is not run the way a Union is supposed to be run

In what regard does he see things turning around? Just for mainline or for the whole US Airways system? I sure as hell hope he is right. Now that USAPA has realized that they need to fix a lot more than just the stupid feud with AWA, I think they will do a lot of good if the company will work with them.

If there is a large shift in RJ flying remember this phrase "Jets4Jobs"

Exactly why PSA will not grow. If any new airplanes come here, it will be to replace 200's. I think management hated the JforJ worse than the pilot group.

You still need to cover the routes left by Mesa. It's the routes we want at PSA, not the jets. As for the jets, they were already J4J planes which can not be used for that again. The only scenario I can see that hapening is if the two unions miraculously pull off a flow-thru/flow-back agreement in which case, we would still be furloughed until mainline flowed thier guys plus some back to mainline.

Now that USAPA is in control at Mainline I assume the ALPA J4J program is now null and void. Is this correct?

Thats where your wrong. If anything, mainline will want the jets here. If there is any net gan in airplanes, jforj will be back in effect. It does not matter whether or not USAPA or ALPA represent mainline. It's contractual. TK told us this in recurrent. No fow-thru/back will be negotiatied with mainline pilots on furlough. PSA couldnt care less about routes as long as they are not more expensive to operate.

I don't understand. Can you elaborate? Doesn't flowthru help mainline anyway because the furloughed guys can come down? I kind of see what you mean about J4J being beneficial to mainline but didn't management want it gone?

Mainline couldn't care less about a flowthru. Under jforj, there was supposed to be a flowthru but as of now there hasn't been one. there was preferential hiring, but not a flowthru like there was supposed to be. Only a flow back, which IS what they care about. From my understanding, jforj is over and done with unless there is growth here at PSA. I dont really see how our ALPA has any motivation to negotiate a flowthru now the mainline is USAPA. Why help guys to flow to a non-apla carrrier? Thats less money for ALPA national. And yes, our management couldn't wait to get rid of jforj. I think there were several of them here that caused headaches.

That's what I am sying though. J4J, flowthru, Mesa's -900's or any other aircraft mean nothing without people being recalled. J4J requires all PSA pilots to be back before we accept furloughed mainline guys. Also, I think I said it earlier, there is a overage of 70+ seat RJ's at the Airways regionals. USAPA will be trying to bring the numbers down by dwindling the -900's that Mesa would give up. We at PSA don't need the -900's. We need more routes and more hours. That's why I don't care what the heck happens to the -900's. I want the routes that Mesa flies. Our aircraft currently can handle the extra flying as they are flying nowhere near the max amount that they could handle. Let mainline and USAPA do what they want with the -900's, give us the routes.

That would be nice but Mesa does some long hauls with the 900's ot of CLT i think. I can't see us doing those with the 200's. Maybe the 700's but we only have like 14 or those

The purchase of Horizons 700's would cover the flying out of CLT.