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So from my buddy at asa its official. ASA is taking over the freedom flying in orlando starting May 1. It will all be 200 flying. They have already asked mechanics, customer service agents, and others move down there and start operations. Not sure if they will have a pilot base there at the beginning or not but supposedly will be turned into a mini hub as freedom gets the boot.

some of the guys were worried about moving there because they thought that it would turn into the lax thing but they were promised from the higher ups that it wouldn't be like that and that as they take the flying over that orlando would become a base just like it is for freedom.

That's good news, congrats ASA.

How much flying is that for them?

well i didn't think to ask him that, but i would guess however much flying freedom has now would all eventually become asa's flying.

No posts through company mail/website/etc.....I'll believe this when i can bid on it

I heard it too.......I hope it's true. How many pilots / aircraft did Freedom have in Orlando? (i.e. how many crews will it take to staff the base?)

Holt said in his last email that we're getting 4 200's for flying primarily in florida. I'm guessing this it. Sounds pretty official to me.

i can tell you this. my buddy at asa is not a pilot. and i can promise you he is in the know. they were officially told yesturday. if you read some of my previous posts about him you will see they are spot on.

Good info. I tend to believe what you / he are saying is true. I think it is in the works.

Where are the 200's coming from?

I just wish that they still had the LAX base....West Coast Flying is so much more fun and exciting!

Not new airframes. Just shifting around flying. Remember, we have lost Corpus, McAllen, Atlantic City, State College, etc....
They will probably take us out of some more cities as they shift to cover this Fla flying.

Yeah, you are probably right.

Its great for ASA and I wish them the best but I am an Orlando native and I hate to say it but a lot of the routes they got are temporary because Freedom can't staff them. Temporary because some of the routes i.e. TYS, MSY and some others are part of Delta's newest cuts in the up and comming months. But much rather ASA be doing this flying then Freedom even if some of it is temporary.

I am glad to see that ASA is expanding out to MCO but I hate to rain on your Freedom bashing. If you read the layout of the Delta/Freedom flying you will see that when Freedom signed, they gave up ALL ERJ flying in exchange for CRJ 900's out of JFK. This is not a surprise loss of flying for Mesa as so many would like to see but rather, just like ASA, just a shift in where they are flying out of. If you look through other post you will see that Mesa is selling their ERJ's to TSA. This was stated by OJ years ago that he didn't want the ERJ because they are a seperate fleet type. But all the same congrats to ASA!

Well, this just confirms my opinion on Mother Delta.

Comair, then Chautauqua, then Freedom, now ASA.

Any bets on them cycling SkyWest through MCO in 3 years. That seems to be that timeline for any DCI carrier in MCO. :rolleyes:

Confirmed rumor from one of the management guys today in our indoc class. I will keep my mouth shut above and beyond that esp. about who confirmed this.

Your post is partly true. Mesa/Freedom did not give up "ALL" ERJ flying. They agreed to give up ALL Dash8 Delta flying out of JFK in addition to several (I believe 5 to be the number...somewhere between 3-5) ERJ airframes. The ERJ will continue to operate in MCO and JFK. Straight from the standing bid department a few days ago, they will effectively be "reducing" MCO. As to the split of ERJs in MCO vs. JFK, this is unknown to me. Currently, there are 70 crews in MCO and 60 in JFK. There are 4 CR9's operating out of JFK at the moment, with the final 10 delivered between now and 2/09.

well congrats guys. i thought they would have announced this on monday since my friend found out about it on saturday. i guess better late than never!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/press...EN476120080402

I don't think you'll have rampie or gate agents moving down there. Comair is the ground handler down there. Eventhough we do very little flying out of there anymore, our ground operation is at 100%. I would put money that it is just the flying going down there and not the ground handling.

Oh come on, just let him think he knows all!

What's the fun in that? That just ruins it for those of us that really do know it all.:p

i heard from a ramper in boton that DGS was going to take over the ground operations there because of the ongoing drug/gun smuggeling that was going on between orlando and the carribean.

Im glad mesa is getting out of there. the operation they were running was pathetic with hundreds of delays. if only Chautauqua got some of that flying. If MCO were to open back up I would be a Captain in CMH or at least much higher up on the fo list!

Surprise! CHQ is getting a few pieces, too. There are a few lines I have found where RP is replacing F8.

Then it must be true!

hahaha, well, my record speaks for itself. :cool:

and i know for a fact that they have already asked maintenance personell to move down there. not sure who else will follow.

actually the guy had put in a bid to go down there.

MTC will go there; like they did to LAX. I highly doubt that there will be a pilot base. If so I would not move down there. We tried that FL thing twice before and never did we put a base there.

What are the chances of new hires by ASA to be sent to MCO? Is a lot of flying expected by new hires there?

Cheers!

This remains to be seen. It still remains to be seen if ASA will even put a base down there. I'm guessing not, as we had a very strong presence in MCO and TPA in recent years and no base was developed.

On the other hand, SkyWest blood runs deep in the veins of our new president and he is looking for ways to get the virtual base process underway. The problem is DL constantly moves DCI carriers in and out of stations, so its been impossible to accurately gauge how many folks will be needed at a virtual base from month to month.

No announcement has been made concerning how long ASA will keep the MCO flying. As of right now, ASA flight numbers are only associated with MCO flying through June. DL could just as easily use ASA as temporary lift until RP, OH, etc could move back in.

RamenNoodles: where did you find out that ASA's flight numbers only extend through June?

Makes sense, thanks for the info!

BH has only made an official statement saying that the MCO flying is for June, and as of right now, ASA flight numbers can only be found in DL reservations through the end of June.

This is all subject to change, of course. It very well could be that DL is planning on keeping ASA there for longer but has not made anything official. My guess is that we are going to be temporary lift, much like what happened with the MCO and TPA stuff back in the 2004/05 time frame. I would very much like to be proven wrong, however. Would be great to have some new, entertaining flying!

But, like I said, all of this still remains to be seen. No sense in anyone getting their undies in a bunch over all of this until something official is made regarding ASA flying.

hahaha I'm reading these posts and cracking up! When i was in training they (management training dep) were saying we were starting an atr base in slc... Just the other day i saw the director of the ATR department going to fly an RJ. All im saying is that they have only said 4 RJs for florida flying and 2 comair CR7's with 12 ATR's still leaving. That's a net reduction of 6 sixty+ seat aircraft. This is just flying being moved around in my opinion. I'm not trying to be negative here but no official announcements have been made about mco, untill then you might as well just ignore it.

All that said I hope this rumor about a base is true cause my surfboard is collecting dust.

you are absolutely right, kangaroo. It is just flying being moved around. The extra 4 RJ's I don't believe are new airframes. I think it is just going to be 4 additional LINES of flying and just an increase in utilization of the 50 seat fleet. After losing APF, MTH, ACY, SCE, MFE, TUP, CRP, MTY, DCA, etc...there is plenty of room to increase flying in the current fleet.

However, official announcements have been made about MCO flying. ASA is defintely doing it. The uncertainly lies in the fact that no one is sure about an MCO base or how long we will even be down there.

Yeah they have announced 4 Rj's and flying, nothing more. Holt didn't say MCO in his address. I'm just saying new rumors start every 2 months, let's just stay with what we've got untill holt says otherwise.

[QUOTE=RamenNoodles;353684]BH has only made an official statement saying that the MCO flying is for June, and as of right now, ASA flight numbers can only be found in DL reservations through the end of June.

where does he say this?

[quote=flyingkangaroo;353775]It was in one of his updates that he posts on the company intranet. He also discussed it during one of our recurrent ground classes. If you search through his updates on the intranet you will find it. He doesn't specify MCO, but it clearly already is MCO because the flight numbers are loaded into the DL reservation system. Its a done deal that we will be flying down there, at least for May and June.

[QUOTE=RamenNoodles;353815]oh so he hasn't really made an official statement... but if you have looked up the flight numbers then i'm sure there is some truth to what you are saying...

However, I'll believe management when they are hooked up to lie detectors, with a taser pointed at their nutts and a hand on the bible... maybe two hands on the bible so you can make sure they aren't doing something sneaky with that other hand...

[quote=flyingkangaroo;353826]That's about as official as you are going to get in this situation because its simply just a realigning of DCI flying. These sort of situations happen on a daily basis and most never even notice.

Yea I definitely understand what you mean. I really have high hopes for BH though. I've e-mailed him a few times and he gets right back to me, and everything he has said so far has come true. I was really skeptical about him at first given all previous management, but I've learned a lot from him already. He's doing a great job at scaring everyone at the GO to actually do some work, and realigning management with the appropriate positions seems to be going well.

One important thing he discussed is the fact that we have a 5 year target that we have to meet in our 15 year DCI contract. At the end of 5 years, ASA must be the 1st or 2nd most efficient DCI carrier or our contract is null and void for the remaining 10 years.

Things like that he has shared with us that previous management never mentioned is really encouraging to me because it keeps front line employees in the loop as to what management is up to.

On a side note, it was discussed by SH in recent recurrent classes that we are actively pursuing a UAL contract in IAD. I don't know how much merit I put in that; however, I do know that the UAL 50 seat flying is one operation that Mesa is losing money on. I guess time will tell with all of that.