There are only about 3 airports that AMR absolutely needs the ATR for.
Beef Island, Key West and Nevis under 5K ft runway
Dominica, well just youtube landings in this place.

AMR has moved away from SJU and is doing allot of the flying with the 737 and 757 out of MIA (make sense, why concert in San Juan when you can go direct). The Bahamas are not economical on a Jet. You will see AMR continue to fly a Turbo Prop, probably the ATR 72-600. APA and AA are close to a contract, once this has been signed you will see a better picture on what will happen with Eagle. As of right now the older ATRs will be parked (we are in slow season), but AMR can implement the new ATR overnight since it only requires transition training that is just a few days worth of training. Similar to what we do now, train on the 72-212 and train differences on the 72-212A (-500). The main change will be the avionics and that can be done with CBT and very little hands on. The ATR can carry almost double it's weight while burning 1,600 lbs an hr. In short trips there is no airplane that can compete with it. So we have to wait and see what happens on the American Contract, then we can see where things might go...

Cough, cough... One List... A guy can only wish...

 

The Q400 is not the most practical airplane for hot weather or short runways. As of right now the Q400 can't be flown for AMR, unless is done by AA.

As far as Jet Blue, I believe they are a stop gap in the Caribbean, I am not sure how economical the EJET is on short flights. St Thomas and St Croix as well as other, they are doing those flights out of SJU while AMR is doing them out of MIA on a 737. Time will tell, But AMR is just getting out of San Juan because the Caribbean has improved most of their airports and larger equipment can be flown into these islands.

 

Ill be there!

 

2 out of 3 ain't bad. EYW has been (Pan Am), and us currently serviced by mainline jets at other carriers. FWIW

 

I would love to see AMR do MIA-EYW in a 737, how many seats do you think they have to leave open to be able to get out of EYW. Ask the other that do it, I think they do it on the smaller 737 that AMR doesn't have. I don't know how a 737-800 would do there, but I see them use allot of runway in MIA and DFW. I believe they are converting all the 737 to 160 PAX and this should complicate the matter.

 

Well, I'll give you DL's 737s out of ATL..but the weight problems you'd have out of MIA would be interesting for such a short route. (max landing + burn allll the time)

 

I'm starting then and I hope DFW opens up by then.

 

For those of you who have been or are currently going to AE class, I'm wondering if its worth it to drive to DFW for training just to have my own transportation rather than relying on the hotel shuttle. I'm in Cali so it'll be a full day of driving for me.

 

Having a vehicle is nice but to drive all the way from Cali? What some people did in our class was rent a car, they are pretty cheap to do so and if you split it with a few class mates.

Otherwise, the shuttle there is fairly accommodating, but the few times I went out in the other peoples cars was a blessing. It's nice to see something other than the route to the training academy.

 

I'm interested in applying (to multiple regionals) but had a quick question. I'm finishing up college - graduating in March. Is it too early to apply for a job? Would they hire and wait to start training until then? Kind of a broad question I realize. If anybody knows if they (or any other regional) does this kind of thing I would be interested.