It's official... 15 more 900s to Mesaba
 

For all of those people who needed proof in writing, I've included the words from todays hotline from John Spanjers, the CEO of Mesaba. There's a special article on mymesaba that says they'll be operated in ATL, but no mention of a base. It's a PDF file, so I can't attach a link.


Hi, this is John and today is Friday, November 7th, 2008.
First, I have some very good news to share, which was made possible as a direct result of the hard work and dedication of everyone here at Mesaba. Beginning in January, we will begin taking delivery of 15 additional CRJ-900 aircraft. The first seven planes we will receive were manufactured within the past year, and the final eight will be brand new aircraft delivered directly from Bombardier. Once we receive the fifteenth plane in June, not only will we operate a 117-plane fleet, but we will also be the largest operator of 76-seat aircraft in the Delta family, with 51 CRJ-900’s. This is very positive news for Mesaba and is a testament to our excellent performance record and competitive operating costs. I believe we have positioned ourselves well as we begin operating as a Delta Connection carrier in the next phase of Mesaba’s history. If you would like to read more information about this announcement, it is available on the main page of MyMesaba.com.

Secondly, last Friday we capped off our best month of operational performance in 2008 by posting a fifth day with a 100% completion factor. In the month of October, we exceeded each of our operational goals, and outperformed our goal for completion factor by a full percent. As I told more than 140 company leaders at this week’s managers meeting here in the Twin Cities, each of you should feel proud of the way we have turned around this year’s operating performance.

Having said that, within the last 24 hours, heavy snow has returned to the upper Midwest, and winter operations have officially begun. We performed under our goals last winter, and we have spent the “off-season” identifying and addressing the challenges we must overcome operationally. We have put a plan in place that should drastically improve our performance this winter, but we need help from everyone involved in our operations to make sure we take care of our planes, our passengers, our fellow employees, and ourselves. We must reduce our aircraft damage – taking special care during the de-icing process – we must communicate, and we must closely follow the safety guidelines set by our company. If we do these things, I believe we will continue our operational success and preserve our status as an industry leader.

I will update this message again next Friday. In the meantime, you can visit MyMesaba.com for information about our upcoming Open Enrollment process for 2009 insurance benefits, and for an update on this weekend’s employee appreciation event at the Mall of America here in the Twin Cities.

Have a great weekend, and keep working safely.

All indications point to having a pilot base out of ATL for Mesaba as it looks like these additional 15 CRJ9s will be based out of ATL.

What I want to know is how is this going to affect the upgrade time for CRJ9 CA slots. Right now it has slowed down to a slow crawl.

Are these 15 the ex Freedom -900s or are these 15 in addition to the Freedom -900s?

I heard 7 are Freedom CRJ9s currently operated by Pinnacle and 8 will be brand new ones from the factory.

7 former Freedom, 8 new from the factory. There will be no net gain in 900s being operated at DCI. The first 14 were originally allocated to Freedom and the 15th was scheduled to go to Comair, but will be operated at XJ instead.


Regarding the base... I guess we'll see on the upcoming vacancies. It'll be interesting to see what they do (if anything) with MEM. If they shrink MEM and build up ATL, things may not change. If they open up ATL and fill it with people that WANT to bid there, it could go junior. They could even release the seatlocks on the 200 if there was any interest. I sure hope they'd do that before they displaced people.

Yeah. I agree with you, Bored.

I think provided MEM is not reduced, most senior guys will probably elect to remain where they are so ATL will probably go junior unless there are many MEM pilots who wants to be there. Either way, looks like more CA slots will open up quickly between Dec to May '09.

Yay!:rolleyes: Welcome to the DCI rat race gentleman!:)

Yup! Seems like last month when Comair was making similar announcements! Good luck gents!

whoever is the cheapest.

good luck on being the cheapest horses the delta dci circus continues