Not to mention if I was UAL (or any other codeshare) I'd be done giving RAH any more flying. I think UAL would be nuts to give RAH more money which they can use to compete directly with them with Airbuses.

So BB will pull the Q's away from F9? As long as they don't continue to operate for F9 BB could get away with it......could. See C on page 2.

I don’t have a clue what the “Rev” has cooking but I wouldn’t put anything past him. He just has to figure a way around the SKW clause.

Time will tell. Good luck to all those at Lynx. I truly mean that.

Exactly, he is sneaky. Won't know what is up until it happens.

BB has SJS.

LOL, for our sakes he needs SPS, Shiny Prop Syndrome. :rolleyes:

The Q is a great airplane for Denver, only turboprop I know of that can carry a full payload (People and Bags) out of high elevation airports with lots of fuel. Great alternative to an RJ, more capable than a Brasilia and an old Dash. Don't know if it would have a high enough profit margin to compete with an old dash though, Doesn't have the crazy weight restrictions a Brasilia has at high elevation, so it might be enough to justify replacing a Brasilia with a Q400. The only thing a Brasilia has over an old Dash is speed.

Eagle ATR's are configured 66 and 64 seats.

The Q400 is NOT a replacement for the E120, S340 and Q2 (ask Horizon) but it is a great replacement for the CR2. Bottom line, the MAJORITY of the markets the E120, S340 and the Q2 serve are not large enough to sustain a Q4 unless you seriously reduce frequency. Now a combination of Q2 types (off peak) and Q4 types (peak) might work on some markets. Customers love options more than they care about the aircraft. Just like they care more about the price of a ticket than the aircraft that carry’s them to their destination. Yes they’ll b1tch and moan about the size and type but they’ll complain a lot more about the price. At least until they start driving and at that point it will no longer matter what aircraft we operate.

We need someone to produce another Next Gen 30-40 seat turboprop. If they did I'd guarantee they'd sell more than enough to turn a rather handsome profit. I'd also wager that SKW would purchase 40-50+ of the airframes and would probably be the launch customer in NA.

PS. I too believe the Q400 has a long profitable future ahead of it but it's not right for every TP market.

They can't go to the CHQ certificate due to the faa wanting to redo the proving runs as CHQ doesn't have TP's. Also the manual and training would have to be redone as well. The truth is that BB was going to move them over, but the FAA said wait a sec and came back with this. Thus is why he is calling it an orphan fleet. I got this info from a Lynx guy familiar with the situation. The Lynx certificate csots money and BB doesn't want to pay to keep it.

can be a replacemnet. 22 to break even on the 200, 29 to break even on the 400. QX numbers on that from when I was there. 400 can go everywhere the 200 can.

Capacity isn't the determining factor when you consider an aircrafts BEP. It's all about the yield. You can put 1 person on the airplane if they're willing to pay for it.

We fly SBA - SJC - SBA and with the yield we pull the E120 BPE is 5 passengers each way. On average our BPE using our average customer yield is around 12 passengers. Based upon Bombardier’s Q400 fuel cost per seat per hour theQ400 burns almost as must in fuel alone as the E120’s total cost per seat per hour (E120 = $36 per seat per hour).

The Q400 is not a replacement for an E120 type a/c. Yes the E120 may be weight restricted in DEN to 20 passengers but it’s still turning a very handsome profit. Otherwise why did SKW cancel all the E120 retirements and slowly start placing them back in DEN (as well as several others) on at-risk routes?

Q400.COM - Turbo Profits

The Q400 is a great airplane but again it’s not a replacement for an E120 type a/c. If it was then QX would still be flying small markets like OTH, LMT and MWH with the Q4. Now SKW is operating them at-risk with the E120 and doing very well. As a matter of fact OTH has proven to be a very solid money maker for us.

note: Numbers based upon $60 oil.