papacharlie

So it seems like oil prices are going to keep getting higher and higher...so my question is, how will this affect the hiring on the regionals this year?
I know that xjt reduced around 20% of the branded flying this month.

WhizWheel

Either way you slice it it can't be good. Overheard SWA on the radio the other day telling ATC to, as of last Monday, expect no greater than .73M in cruise for fuel savings. Ominous.

Lighteningspeed

This is a major concern for the airline industry. Most aviation analysts are saying that the regionals with a lot of 50 seat RJs are going to be in trouble unless they start to unload those smaller jets and replace them with bigger ones. But, at the same time, majors are rethinking their strategy on using RJs with this crazy fuel price. They need to go to at least 100 seat jets to spread the cost and RJs aren't cutting it. There's the scope clause, which is a good thing so they can't go any bigger than 76 seat RJs for the regionals.

There's bound to be a major shakeup in the regionals, and some may not be around when all the dust settles. My guess is that this is one of the reason why NWA is trying to merge with DAL, and if that happens, NWA/DAL will probably try to consolidate their regional flying and distribute them between XJ, XJT, Compass, Skywest and Comair. Don't know about XJT but XJ is planning to hire another 300 or more in 2008. This could change overnight, of course, if this oil price keeps going up.

soon2bfo

We're all going to be taking the train soon enough. It is the most efficient way to carry weight over any significant distance. Or we can start using Biofuel (yeah right).

Airwaves

It's called hydrogen.

rickair7777

For airplanes? You've been reading too much science fiction.

BTW, where does the H2 come from?

ToiletDuck

Cheap time to buy airline stocks. It's not so much the price of oil that's increasing as it's the value of the dollar decreasing. Since Oil is traded in US dollars and the dollar is some 40-45% down from the norm then the price of oil has risen accordingly. Our goal shouldn't be to lower the price of oil as it should be to raise the value of our economy thus lowering the price of oil. We need to send Afghanistan a letter signed "with love" and get gone. I can understand leaving troups in Iraq for now but the price tag of our military single handily crippled us. Couple that with less new money coming in from all the crisis and things aren't looking too good. Can't sit here and worry about it though it won't solve anything. Want to make a difference? Keep going to work and keep that cash flowing. We don't need stagnation. It's almost as if terrorism did win. Because of the attacks we've seen security and the cost of security go through the roof, every politician uses it as a standpoint to argue for what they want money for. Milk and education vs. using that money to fight terrorism and it's always terrorism that wins that bill. Sooner or later enough is enough. There's reasonable concerns and then there's unreasonable. No reason a tiny town in the middle of nowhere should be getting a million dollars worth of Hazmat suits :/

I'm looking for a fed cut in the middle of March here. Should be the last one for a good while. Couple that with the rebate checks and things should start looking up.

waflyboy

I agree that unbridled government spending (al la Iraq) has dealt the economy quite a blow. The process of long-term recovery is going to hurt. Unfortunately, it means controlling inflation via the money supply and reducing government debt. Of course, none of this is politically attractive because, as Americans, we have a God-given entitlement to anything we want, right now. And any attempt to defy this ideal will loose public approval, resulting in another "yes-man" moving up to Capitol Hill. And the cycle continues.....

ExperimentalAB

Agreed, ToiletDuck...when was the last time anybody overnighted in Canada? Can't even buy a McD's burger for less than $2 US...Our dollar is incredibly weak. Get it strong again and we'll see the price of oil drop appropriately. Then we can worry about the "artificial" rise due to speculators doing their speculating.

Lighteningspeed

Very true indeed. The war is estimated to cost us 2.2 billion a day. How much longer can we keep this up? We are in a lot of mess with no end in sight with the likes of Hillary who says had she known then what she knows now, she would not have voted yes to the war.