You are correct about less seats making it harder to spread cost but you also need to think about communities who can't support a 70+ seat aircraft, some of these communities help fill up the NB and WB aircraft. That's the knock on the Q300, that it has a much higher cost per seat compared to the -400. If Bombardier would do what ATR did with the -600 and allow the company to derate the engines per the operation then it could be beneficial but it costs a big penny to push a 50 seater 320 Knts.

 

I see we have returned to the 'Rumors' portion of the thread title. Straight from 2 engineers from Bombardier's mouths to my ear, they will never reopen the 300 line. It would be awesome for us if they did... and they did tell me this 2 years ago so who knows. The only thing that those of us currently on property know for fact is that as of now with no replacement, we are on a ticking clock counting towards zero.

 

Q 400s will have a place at the new amr and new city pairings that dont exist today

 

You're right, I have been gone 2 years.
But I've got a lot of friends there who I hear what's going on, regularly.

If you believe something good is in the works, you're delusional.
A wholly owned carrier is not what this industry, and specifically AMR/USAir want to invest in.

AMR just signed a contract with RW on condition they finance their own aircraft.

USAir just signed a contract with Mesa on condition they provide the aircraft as well.

These companies do not want to spend hundreds of millions to refleet their wholly owned carriers. AMR has been desperately trying to get rid of theirs, and USAir has been ok with letting PDT shrink in 2009 and now with airframe retirements, and PSA has been status quo. Both carriers have not seen $ infusion/investment from mainline. They will not. Until they have no other choice, Mainline is not going to have a regional do the flying and guarantee a profit to that company but foot the bill for the planes if they can help it.

Mark my words, they will resign contracts with other partners and sign new partners before PDT gets new aircraft.
Case and point, on the USAir side, Skywest got all that flying the PDT guys were salavating for in PHX last year.
Mesa just got a new contract with USAir for more 900s. None of the old dash-200s to PDT, None of the RJ2/7/9s to PSA.
If you think otherwise, you're a loyal Farrowite, and you're career will suck as much as PDT does. Sorry to break it to you.

 

Guys, ignore Piedmonster. He has the same rep at Skywest as he had here at PDT. He thinks Skywest should be the only regional around. You need to do what works best for you. His is an opinion from one unhappy ex-employee.

 

Bahahahaha

 

Pretty funny! Made me laugh!

Don't think that about SKW.
I've got no issue with Horizon, Eagle, AWAC, PSA, Republic, Compass, or XJT. For that matter, Mega, TSA, GoJet, Commutair, Cape Air, Silver, AmFlight, Empire, Key Lime...
Pretty much my only 2 serious dislikes are PDT and Pinnacle.

That's pretty far from "only", eh Sparky (aka theHub)?
For the most part, I just talk crap about PDT. Because PDT deserves it.

Oh well, my break from being holier than thou is over, time to start being superior again.

 

You have some serious issues. The good news is they're treatable. I suggest the Bunny Ranch. I hear the girls are hot, and for the most part clean. The only downside is it's probably going to cost you a full months paycheck since Skywest is still a **** ant regional just like Piedmont is.

We all took it in the shorts at Piedmont. Plenty of us took it in the shorts before Piedmont since it only became a 250 hour wonderpilot haven in early '07 (when were you hired again??). You seem to be the only former pilot coming on here and slamming the place.

 

Hahaha... I think I heard backpage dot com works good.. Cheaper.

 

People tend to justify the choices they've already made, right or wrong. Case in point Piedmonster. I'll go ahead and play that game too and tell you why I've stayed at Piedmont.

The morning of the start of my trip I wake up in my own bed in my own reasonably sized house. I have a 10 min drive to the airport where I park right next to the terminal and walk right into the "crew room". No TSA, no parking shuttle buses, no crash pads, no night before commute in not knowing if you will make it because all the flights are full, no days and nights stuck away from your family on a scheduled day off.

I can come up with a laundry list of things I don't like about PDT but they would probably be pretty similar with most regional pilot gripes. There is no way in hell I would leave this place voluntarily for another regional right now. That said, I've also never heard of a person leave here that regretted it. Again, just keep this in mind when reading these sort of posts on these forums,people tend to justify the choices they've already made, right or wrong.