CHQ's management took a gamble and there is no guarantee they lost money on the deal. If the gamble pays off and they eventually do fly a 170 for cal it would have been worth the headache of setting up a new operation. Its too soon to tell if its ever going to pay off. If i was republic and i heard skywest was about to buy xjt i would have some serious issues to work out. Skywest was the first pick to do the 69 aircraft flying for CAL. They refused due to the terms and CHQ picked it up.

 

That was my gut feeling as well when this whole CHQ business played out. Ask Toilet Duck (when hes done being banned AGAIN), he says he saw models of E170s in COEX colors in the uniform office at RAH Lets not forget, CAL is still in contract negotiations with ALPA. Just because they haven't caved on scope YET, doesn't mean it won't happen. Theres nothing stopping CAL from pointing at a loss and saying "we can't raise pay or improve workrules unless you give up scope". I hope theres enough guys at CAL who aren't willing to give up scope for larger jets but you just never know. I hate to dig up the ancient past, but CAL is known for having a lot of very short sighted, selfish individuals on property.

In reality, this whole mess is just aggravated by the clash of egos. Larry Kellner is unhappy because he can't push us around and Jim Ream is annoyed that Kellner (and others) don't see the value that our product has. Its no secret, Kellner doesn't give a rip about quality. In fact, since taking over Larry has done very little to improve the quality of the Continental product and has taken great strides to erode that quality such as the whole CHQ debacle, removing meals from a lot of flights (what happened to "meals at meal time"? When does Larry Kellner ever eat!?) and anybody else hear the rumor that they are removing the video screens from the the 737s? When you see it from the perspective of a group who has done nothing but their very best to provide the utmost level of quality and service FOR CAL'S CUSTOMERS just to be kicked to the curb, it can be very frustrating and disheartening.

 

I really hope the guys at CAL stand their ground on scope, it's already gotten out of hand. The last thing we need is more of those stupid 70+ seat RJs on Regional carrier certificates. I think commuters should go back to just turbo-props, and get rid of the stinkin RJs.

Judging by the size, I'd say he eats all the time.

 

Bryan Bedford wouldn't have done the deal with CAL if it was a money losing project, thats not the way he does business. He would never take a loss for the possible opportunity to fly 170s for CAL.

Same thing happend when Frontier filed, they wanted us to fly at a loss and BB said "F, this, I'm out!" He doesn't play the traditional airline game of losing money just to have planes in the sky.