Where would all this cash come from if mainline is selling 190s just for a buck?

 

PDT's idea of trying to acquire or renew aircraft:

SF (to leasing company): "Ok, we'll give you $5,000/ month, plus these really cool cloth zip up manual binders in exchange for 13 Q300s"

Rep from leasing company: "You're joking right?"

SF: "Nope"

Rep: "Get out...now"

...

Next week on ask piedmont:

SF: "After heated negotiations with the leasing company, we were unable to secure financing for additional aircraft"

 

For those of you without access, from this week's AP:

"We are in the process of performing a business analysis to see if a western operation could prove to be cost effective. There are many hurdles to overcome and we are working through each of those issues. We don't want to put the cart before the horse here, but we are excited by the possibility of performing flying out west. More to follow."

 

If they are talking like that on AP then there must be at least a pretty good chance of it happening.

Wonder if the operation did start up how many aircraft it would encompass and how many recalls.... and when. I imagine the flying would be at earliest... ?? any guesses?

I hope the US Air guys are successful at blocking the LGA transaction.. that would be marvelous.

Even with PHX the PDT base structure would still suck badly... very badly.

 

This actually got me laughing out loud. Picturing SF, (the whole picture, voice, face, mannerisms, etc) sitting across the desk from the leasing company rep gave me a hell of a laugh. Thanks, it made my day better!

 

So really, am I missing something...who pays for 20+ airplanes? Last I checked mainline was still doing everything it could to not go below their min cash position (I thought it was somewhere near $850mil) with the banks and were forced to sell planes to get cash and cut capacity. The last chat with DP in CLT he was saying that they can't buy airplanes since they no longer have the credit to go buy planes financed

 

What's your logic behind this? USairways is losing money BADLY in LGA. So they continue to lose money and they fold the wholly owns more... In the end the more red you have the less likely you are to stick around... So I dont see how keeping LGA is a good thing again for the name before the "express" on your planes and ours....?

 

Any idea on when and how many? How many were originally expected to be recalled? 20? 30? 40?

 

My guess is this:
If they pick up 200/300s it is to replace the 100s. The ones PDT owns are tired and very maintenance intensive. They would replace the 37 seaters with true, unrestricted performance. The 300s would serve to increase seat capacity on routes that on the 100s run full and profitable without expanding staffing needs. And if they don't do a straight park a 100 for each 200/300, it will be a ratio. This would only happen if they find a home for the LGA aircraft (as in the number of aircraft, not the actual airframes). If there was no hope of placing the LGA aircraft, they'd just do a 1 for 1 swap, keep 44 a/c with 22 300s, 14(?) 200s, and the remainder as the newest 100s we already have. No net staffing change, just more capacity for the niche routes PDT actually is very productive on, 37 seat cap, not 32-35 ave for the lower capacity routes, and some old 100s just to screw with pilots in CQ (and any newhires in 2017) to have to know 3 sets of limitations (again).

My 2 cents.

 

Because then I wouldnt have to commute.