Future of Express Jet
 

OK, so a month and a half remains until the flying is transferred to Chautauqua and the company still doesn't have an idea what it is doing with the 54 (69 minus 15) aircraft?

How much will "branded" flying weigh on the operation? Why even attept to do branded flying with RJ's? We know how that ended up last time it was tried.

It seems as though they are holding off on that one as long as possible. I think XJT would rather supplement than try their own branded flying. Apparently there was supposed to be a "big" announcement yesterday during the 3rd quarter press conference. As far as I know, NOTHING new was announced. Nothing was even mentioned about the 25 a/c going south of the border, though it is posted on this site. That was strongly reflected by the stock price dropping about 18 percent since yesterday's alleged "big announcement". I am not trying to be pessimistic, but really am starting to wonder myself. But then again they could turn around next week send the a/c to Aviacsa and supplement flying for Delta out of CVG and LAX. Who knows?

I think the big reason that there was no huge annoucment is that we bid on both the Delta and Frontier flying from what I have heard, and I view it as a positive sign that the planes are not going to Aviacsia. The planes would have been going, but not the pilots...

mistype...

does anyone know exactly what/how many routes are going to CHQ?

I guess you haven't taken into account that we're removing between 3 to 10 rj's per month. We got time, just wait the other shoe will drop soon.

Is it just me, or does it seem like fosters has an ax to grind with XJT...hmmm.... And yes, the numbers I have heard for withdrawal of aircraft from CAL service is 2-3 per month. Do the math, its gonna take a looooong time for those aircraft to trickle away. In the meantime, attrition will more or less take care of whatever aircraft completely leave the fleet so the loss will not be noticed by the pilot group. Especially the guys flying the charters making $52/hr as 2nd year FOs *drools*

LOL no ax to grind. I never even applied to Express Jet. Too bid a company for me.

Keep in mind I say the same things about my own company. I just like to give people stuff to think about. Reality sucks when it hits :D.

Except for those hired now or just recently hired who will be on reserve for a long time and those FO's wanting to upgrade...

I've heard the same recently, but a question: Wasn't the original plan for the withdrawal to be complete by JUL07? Has that now changed to FEB08-OCT09 ( :eek: ), "doing the math"?

That jives with what I heard originally. I think the issues with CHQ starting service combined with CAL increasing XJT's block hours may have something to do with it. Word of warning: everything I have heard is anecdotal and second hand. Nothing from official sources. But when everyone is hearing the same rumors it makes me start to wonder.

I hope to Jebus Expressjet has some former corporate pilots doing the 'interviews' for the Corporate division. I understand that the planes are still going to be in a 50-seat configuration, but people paying a premium for a shuttle or charter expect a premium product. I don't know Expressjet's pilot group, but I know I've flown with some CAs at my gig that would get fired right quick in a jiffy if they treated a Beechjet or XLS the way they fly the RJ.

CHQ is fully able to supply aircraft to cover the CALEx flying by summer 07, but it is likely that CAL has allowed a somewhat extended timetable in order to accomodate CHQ's US 145 aircraft reduction timetable. Remember, CHQ is only going to have 44 aircraft for CALEx, compared to the 69 aircraft reduction by XJT. The CRJ's (24 of them) will all be available, painted, and brought into servicable condition by summer 07. The 20 145's being taken from the US Airways side are of course on property and ready to go, but CHQ would like to change those over to blue and gold paint 1 for 1 as the new US 175's are delivered. The 30 175's will all be on property by summer of 08, however the 20th one should be delivered sometime in the first few months of 08; this should mean that all CHQ aircraft would be online with CALEx around Jan 1 '08. Of course, no matter how you do the math, the addition of 44 aircraft will never equal the reduction of 69 aircraft. Perhaps the 25 other aircraft will be reduced after CHQ aircraft are all online. But to all you naysayers, the CHQ program is on track, CRJ classes are running, manuals are approved, and the first CRJs have arrived.

I was under the impression that CAL was putting 73's on some of those routes covered by the 69 aircraft, cutting some routes altogether, and then the left over stuff was to be flown by CHQ - hence 44 does not equal 69. True story?

True. Some of it has to do as mentioned above with the transition in paint schemes from chaniqua, some of it has to do with the fact that some markets have grown enough to easily accomodate a 737.

I don't have any bitterness towards chaniqua, however, I fail to understand how adding an extra fleet type (24 aircraft at that) with zero commonality, will be profitable for them. The only thing I can think of is that management is gambling on getting more flying in 3 years from CAL...that's definetely a gamble!

The CRJ's all have us scratching our heads. But what is known is that additional 145's were not available in the desert, from Embraer, or otherwise. CHQ needed an aircraft to fulfill the CAL contract. Also, the CRJ lease rates are $40,000 a month less that the 145, which helps absorb some of the new costs incurred with a new fleet type. But the best answer is that the CRJ fleet is not expected to stop at 24 aircraft. RAH likes Embraer, but the majors like the CRJ because of the lower cost, passenger amenities be damned. Not slamming the CRJ here, so put out that flame... With rumors of ComAir losing CRJs to another company (CHQ did not bid on CRJ-200 flying in the Delta RFP), NWA looking for CRJ providers, and a sizeable demand for -700's and -900's out there now, I would assume that the CRJ type addition is a preemptive move. To date, Bryan Bedford has been good at predicting market trends and growing the company in advance to accomodate.

I do not get why CAL is conforming to the rest of the industries lower bar, instead of taking advantage of their position as a leader and raising the bar for the rest of the airlines. Example... They are the only ones left serving food for free on most of their flights. Instead of advertising this fact and beating up the other majors with this, they cut the number of flights that have meals.

Example... CAL has only one regional airline working for it. This allows a great amount of flexibility when the weather goes down the crapper in IAH or EWR (both notorious for bad delays when the poop hits the fan...) XJT gives up slots, cancels flights, etc, so that CAL flights can maintain more ontime. XJT can drop a IAH-LFT (Layfeyette, LA) turn when there's a 3 hours delay program going, and transition the airplane onto the IAH-DFW flight where the plane is going to be 4 hours late b/c its stuck on the ramp on a refuel stop AT DFW and can't get to IAH. Bring in another carrier like UAL, NWA, AAL, DLA have all done, and the swaps are no longer there that worked so well in the past....

My point is that the bean counters that are now running CAL are just doing that... Looking at the hard numbers and not the intrinsic numbers that make an airline great

Amen, but thats SOP for Larry the Beancounter and Co.:rolleyes:

I was thinking of applying to XJT. Would this be a bad idea now? I'm from the houston area so I was hoping to work for them and stay in the area.

We've been told by the folks at management two things:

No furloughs.

We'll hire through Spring of next year.

You decide. Good luck

How much does a referral help? Or is it not hard to get in at all?

The race to the bottom with XJT sounds like it could get a little interesting with the corporate flying?

Whats that supposed to mean? The corporate flying sounds like a decent gig if all you care about is the money. A second year FO would bring in about $56,000, not counting per diem. Can't beat that.

Agreed. I don't see how paying people more lowers the bar.

Internal recomendations certainly help, but it's really up to you. Once again in my humble opinion, they look for two things:

Can we train you.

Can we get along with you.

Both are the byproduct of a good attitude.

how do you think they are going to afford to pay them? Look at the economics of it. What are they going to charge per mile? Most charter spin off charge barely over what they paying to operate so they can make payroll. Do you think there is a booming industry for a 60 seat charter aircraft still configured for pax? Doubt it, who are they going to be flying around? Doubt there are many clients out there who could afford that type of aircraft for a charter/

I don't know the answer to your question. What I do know is that the contracts have already been signed but the names of the clients have, obviously, not been made public. Also, as far as the pay issue, management came to us with those numbers. And it is 5-10 airplanes out of 270. They are obviously not betting the farm on this charter thing. So no sigep_nm, the sky is definitely NOT falling over here at XJT.

My $.02 is that I don't think the corporate flying at XJT is going to be around long enough for anyone to see the benefits financially. There are companies out there doing this same thing in 727's, 717's, Saabs, EMB-120's, then you also have NJA, Flight Options, FlexJet, etc.

The chances of XJT tapping into this market with EMB's.... making money..... and growing are slim. There are already quite a few players.... and the EMB 135/145 is ridiculous inside. A little XM radio and more legroom isn't gonna do the trick fellas.

People aren't doing it industry wide. Several places could benifit. The aircraft could possibly be changed. That I don't know. But there are several organizations that move teams of people in privately chartered aircraft. College and pro sports teams. Red-cross and other humanitarian groups. UN. Companies with large groups of management like IBM. I think of it more like the BBJ. While money is an issue it's the point to point ability and doing so on-call that makes the difference and will be why people use them.

It not only works better as one company, but it has all but publicly been said that XJT in fact comes out cheaper. XJT has an economy of scale that no one else touches. Our 274 aircraft are operated as efficiently and with more reliability than any fleet anywhere. (99.9 numbers here). CRJs not only have upfront costs of training, certification to the ops spec, etc, but also need all new GPU's (they are AC power not DC like the ERJ). CAL has no way to positively spin "taking us back" and therefore will suck up the cost to go ahead with this....

No offense to CHQ crews but when the operational reliability decreases, costs increase, and px dislike shows through, CAL is gonna be really regretting this decision. We will still have close relations with them (200+ a/c) and will be available for future opportunities.

Branded flying is a last resort as far as management is concerned. It is a big question mark to investors and management. They say that it could be operational by Q2 '07. Lots to get in order, ticket sales, gates, routes, etc etc etc. We would not do like independence and compete in a Hub (ala IAD). We would do a lot of underserved communities point-point. It is easier to establish those routes when you only need to fill 50 seats. The XR's can fly some long legs too...

As far as hiring.... I wouldnt be worried. The training department has been ramping up to run 80 pilots/month through in Jan/Feb '07. 35 CAs have been leaving each month for CAL, SWA etc. 35/mo for CA attrition only....thats really good folks.

Keep your eyes and ears open. We are all curious to see where the chips fall.