Hello everyone.

As I mentioned in my May 30 message about the accelerated Houston (IAH)
wind down schedule, there are a number of moving parts involved in our
restructuring plan which require us to continuously refine the details.
I’m writing today to provide an update about additional adjustments to our
original Colgan wind down plan.

First, IAH flew its last flight on July 5 as scheduled. The IAH employees
did an outstanding job managing that process and providing a smooth
transition for United’s IAH operations. I want to sincerely thank our
entire IAH team for their professionalism and dedication to ensuring safe,
reliable operations as we concluded operations at this hub.

Currently, Colgan has 5 Saab lines of flight at Dulles (IAD), and 14 Q400
lines of flight operating at IAD and Newark (EWR).

We originally planned for IAD to wind down in August, and EWR to wind down
by December 1. However, United asked us to adjust that schedule and wind
down all operations by September 5, 2012 and we agreed.

Therefore, the IAD Saabs will end operations on July 31 as planned. The
Q400 operations will continue as planned in July, see a slight reduction
in August and operate its last scheduled flight on September 5. This will
complete the wind down of our Colgan operations and officially conclude
our flying relationship with United.

We will continue to provide information to all employees impacted by this
process. This includes operations employees at IAD, EWR and our Albany
(ALB) maintenance base, as well as Colgan’s support employees at our
headquarters. We’ll need a number of Colgan employees to stay beyond
September 5 in order to wrap up the remaining elements of our wind down
plan.

I know this process is difficult. However, this wind down is a necessary
step in our efforts to create a viable business plan for Pinnacle.

Thank you to United, who has been a wonderful partner. And thank you to
the outstanding pilots, flight attendants, ground crews, maintenance and
SOC professionals supporting our Colgan operations, who have done a
tremendous job.

Please continue to focus on taking care of our passengers and one another.
We’ll provide more information as we get closer to September. I am truly
grateful for your hard work and your constant commitment to maintaining
safe, reliable operations through the last scheduled day. Thank you.

John

 

It was fun while it lasted, lots of good people over at CJC

 

Good luck and best wishes to my former fellow Colganites, esp, those I worked with at EWR. Great people and many good memories (with the exception of one terrible day in February, 2009 ).
Hope everyone lands on their feet with bigger and better things ahead for all of you.

 

here comes another knee jerk furlough announcement, followed by a hiring announcement cause mismanagement has no clue whats going on.

 

Guess I'll be in a CRJ quicker than I thought

 

Probably right on the furlough. Doubt there will be hiring for a long time. Don't be surprised if there isn't more bad news on the way and parking of more aircraft. Hope not for the people there, but I think Pinnacle has more rough seas ahead for a while.

 

I don't get the "owned" image. Don't you only need 4-in-a-row to win? If so, the red chips guy has already won. There are already 4 in a row diagonally. Dropping that chip he's holding is useless.

About the Colgan wind-down, this was probably done to prevent guys being awarded the Qs just a month before it disappears anyway! That last award had way too many pilots going to training for an aircraft that was gone in less than two months. That is an utter waste of money, and no company in their right mind should have done that.

 

They'll be fine, they are senior to me after being hired 5 years after me.

 

I think the company wanted the useless training to happen to show the judge that our contract needed to be cut since it was a waste (even though its the company who is willingly wasting the money on that particular training when I think the union didnt want it to happen)

As for the owned I could equate that to delta "owning" us haha

 

I agree- the "owned" image is retarded.

And secondly- Why would United ask Colgan to end it sooner? It's not the case. PNCL didn't want to spend $2 million training guys for the Q. I think Spanjers isn't being honest. Just say- Its pointless to spend money to train guys who won't even make it to the line. We will respect that. But don't feed us BS about United asked us to conclude our flying sooner. That makes no sense and puts pressure on RAH to get up to speed. Unless the rates United pays Colgan are significantly higher than what RAH has bid.