Shuttle America/Republic certificates merger?
 

Heard rumors that Shuttle and Republic are to all move on to one certificate, is this true?

Just that, a rumor.

That rumor has been true since I was hired here 7 years ago ;)


Even with AA's most recent scope give away, us air currently allows 86 seats to be flown by regionals.

UAL is at 70 seats
DL is at 76

So there is still a scope issue to prevent the merging of certs.

Throw in a AA/US merge and the downsizing of republic 175's from 86 to 76 and the gap is narrowed. Rumor gains traction.

this post is inaccurate

UAL is now allowed 76 seat feed per new CBA

AA & US MOU allowes for grandfathered airplanes seating more than 76 seats

So in essence all majors are now allowed to outsource 76 seaters and 86,000 lbs. Delta has a few over 86,000 lbs but this are grandfathered in and the US ones have also been addressed!

I could see a CHQ/Shuttle merger before a RP merger. BB likes the RP certificate because it is unemcumbered by any type of scope outside of the US flying. Airways scope only applies to aircraft flying for US Airways. They could care less what you fly for anyone else. That is why the 190s went to RP.

The only reason the 170s went to Shuttle in the first place were the fines APA was handing down to Bedford because he tried to put them on the CHQ certificate. Now that the scope has been relaxed, I wouldn't be surprised to see a CHQ/Shuttle merger. The costs of running these mutliple certificates are insane, and I'm sure Bedford's bean counters are going nuts paying for duplication they don't have to.

I have to say that I've heard this rumor from a few different directions within the last few days.

There have been modifications made to the Shuttle procedures in order to bring them more in line with Republic's, Shuttle's relatively young Chief Pilot recently moved to the Republic Certificate, and his replacement doesn't strike me as a long-term guy...more like someone who took the Shuttle CP gig as a way to finish his career.

It would save the company a tremendous amount of money and they've been exploring ways to do this in a "virtual" manner for some time.

It really wouldn't surprise me.

Neither would this.^