skywest not hiring?
 

Just heard from a line CA that, "tomorrow's class is the last one for a while....every one else just goes into a pool"

I wonder if this will continue through the industry?

Yes, all classes have been cancelled for the near future. Not sure how long it will be, I heard until August. Probably has to do with Delta cutting back alot of flying. In today's day and age of fuel prices, I just don't think the 50 seat RJ is economical to run anymore. I would venture to guess that airplanes like the E170 and 190, maybe even the CRJ900 are going to be the future of regional aircraft.....

the E170/90 burn way more fuel the the CRJ700/900 too bad everyone has a woody for em

I don't have a woody, I just prefer comfortable aircraft. Say what you will, there's no denying the 170 is much more passenger friendly than the 700.

This is true, I’ve seen an average difference of around 400-500 PPH Total between the two with the CR being much more efficient. FWIT, I have a friend who is flying the E-170. Although the CRJ is pretty well stretched to its max with the CR1000, the E-series has the ability to be stretched well beyond 120 Pax; but lets all hope that mainline continues to take delivery of all a/c near this range.

True as well, there is no comparison; the E-170/5 is wider therefore providing a larger cabin with wider seats, deeper overhead bins and more headroom. But with $100/brl oil, the CR7/9's making more money for their partners than the E-170's & 175's are.

yeah I wasn't saying that the CRJ is comfy...I try not to sit in back... but as oil keeps going up I can't see mainline airlines wanting to pay for the petro.

Going back to the original question, do you guys think this will continue through the industry or is it just Skywest?

Tough to call....but I would say it probably won't just be limited to Skywest. I think all carriers of the 50 seat RJ are probably going to start feeling the pinch on cutbacks. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think Comair is getting cutbacks on their 200's, as well as Skywest. With age 65, the large pool at Southwest, etc, I would say that hiring at the major levels will affect attrition at the regionals. Combine that with less growth and aircraft cuts at the regional level, I think it will be felt industry wide. However, that said, I think that RAH is in a much better strategic position than most just due to their fleet makeup (E170's, E190's...). While Skywest, ASA, Comair have much more 200's than any other plane, RAH is pretty evenly distributed between the smaller RJ's and the larger ones. Just my opinion though.

I met Chip Childs when he was flying around our system rallying the troops before the ALPA vote. I asked what was new with SkyWest, any word on the Midwest side, etc. He mentioned that they were trying to get United to do 900's. He didn't say in what seating configuration though.

So I agree with the earlier posts that the 700's and 900's will probably be the aircraft of the future for regionals. At SkyWest we still have 18 700's and 4 900's coming later this year. So I think hiring will pick back up sooner or later.

I can only think of us getting the Midwest 50 seaters and RAH getting the 50 seaters for Continental in the last few years. The 200 is probably going to phased out in the next 5 - 10 years.

No 190's at RAH although we do have a payscale running around for it. Our E-jet fleet is all 170/175's. We're not stopping hiring from what I understand, although we are more comfortably staffed than last year. Of course, last year we didn't have enough pilots to operate all our aircraft so I think we're just now catching up. While attrition has slowed slightly, we still have a lot of hiring to do to keep up.

Agree with this except I think the E-jet, when the stuff hits the fan, will not be viewed as such a great plane due to higher fuel burn...what do I know though.

I heard RAH has 190's and is looking for someone to fly them for. Is that true?

I think the E-jets will still be popular due to pax comfort, but the CRJ will hold it's own due to fuel efficiency. If it wasn't for the oil spike, the CRJ would be toast.

As I understand it, some of their 170 options can be converted to 190's if they so choose.

Someone from RAH would know more than me, but I think they could come as early as the end of this year/beginning of next.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sh...ght=boyd+group

As far as staffing goes we are getting better but I'm still thinking we're far from where they'd like to be. So long as I keep seeing two CA's flying the same aircraft we aren't there yet. We very rarely have reservist available by any means.

I've heard RAH secured all the options they could so that they could sell them later. I don't know if that's even possible but it was mentioned. Insight anyone?

In my humble opinion the cards are laid out for an industry slow down in hiring....

Age 65
Oil Prices
Mergers and consolidations
Fleet retirements and replacements

Here at XJT we've been hiring into a pool for a while with classes not resuming 'til April (subject to change ofcourse), and the same thing with upgrades...all based on attrition at this point.

And the RJ's burn way more fuel (and I mean WAY MORE) than the comparable turboprops yet the majors haven't given serious thought to go back to them. CAL is the only one, with the majority of the majors issuing RFP's for large RJ's.

If fuel burn was their primary concern we'd see a lot more RFP's for TP's on the table IMO like the Colgan Q400 one instead of the numerous -900 RFP's.

The 170's really spanked the CRJ. While my company operates only CRJ's, thankfully they don't have the size of fleet like the "major" regionals do. Personally I see the 170's doing most of the domestic RJ flying in the future.

Why should it be when management can keep ofsetting those costs by not adjusting contracts with inflation and COLA and/or pay concessions?? :eek::mad:

just wait, the CRJ1000 is going to be the new cattle car of the regional airline market......

I'm waiting for Soutwest to call RAH to do flying into Mexico for them on the 170's because it would allow them to expand and yet stay away from the "little plane" mentality they are campaigning against.



**Duck sits waiting for something to nibble on the line then take the bait**

Now that would be disappointing for us poor SkyWest folk, no? :D

"**Duck sits waiting for something to nibble on the line then take the bait**"

Mod note:

It would be wise to not make posts of a baiting nature at APC. This site is about free flowing debate of a professional nature. Not "baiting" someone into a flamebait type thead for entertainment value. The mods sometimes have a hard time deciding what to call flamebait. When you make a statement like the quote above, it makes it pretty easy to figure out....

I hope not, I hope they would be the future of smaller mainline aircraft.............

Touche. With appropriate pay rates as well.

I respecfully have to disagree with you. Little thing call scope is going to keep those birds out the regional market as it should.

You do realize that the 1000 is a 100 seater and even if you throw a few first class seats you still end up with over 80 seats total...to my knowledge the only airline with scope over 70 seats right now is US airways as grandfathered through America West....

It's not that simple, as you're aware SWA is not a flag carrier, which is the whole reason for getting someone else to do their international flying; well a regional isn't either. We all operate into Mexico under the umbrella of the flag carriers we service.

My money is on ATA doing that flying with 73's as they're established already with SWA. Otherwise it would be a very big investment for any regional to go through that much red tape for a code-share.

DAL is 76 seats and MAG is running their CR9's at 86 seats US.

I do hope that scope doesn't loosen anymore than it has now but remember that most everyone had scope restricting reginals to 50 seats half a decade ago and now that has changes. We can't see the future, all we can do is hope that it's in our favor.

I don't think 50 seaters will be going anywhere. They may limit their routes, but they will not disappear. There will still be a need for service to small towns. Yes, turboprops could replace the 50 seat RJ in that capacity, however, it will most likely not happen due to the public. There are still many people who have the "dangerous propeller plane" syndrome. When Airways replaced turboprop routes with jets, the load factor drastically increased. Though we might can never understand it, for some reason the public, for the most part, think jets are safer.

Fewer moving parts.

Nope...They just can't see the moving parts in a Jet :D

You'd think it'd make it easy to figure out it was a joke. I'd hate to think someone would have to actually point out something is flamebait for someone to recognize it. Next time I'll add the :p <---second layer of "Hey guys it's just a joke" protection in case it wasn't already obvious.