Corona Virus
 

Hi yall! first time poster and new to OO and the 121 world so go easy on me...

Just was wondering what some of you airline veterans here think about how OO will get through the Corona virus situation?

I see we are still hiring like crazy and have 45+ new airplanes on the books for this year and early next...OO has obviously grown dramatically since the last downturns (9/11, bird flu etc...) and I completely understand no one has a crystal ball and can predict the future, but does anyone have any opinions or insight as to how SkyWest could handle this situation if as they are saying, it is only going to get worse before it all gets better? Furloughs? Reduction in flying schedule? both of these?

For someone sitting at the bottom of the seniority list I do appreciate your thoughts!

They'd probably handle it the way they did previous slowdowns. Instead of average line values ever month of 87-90 hours that would be reduced down to a lower number. Years past that number went down to the 75-77 hour range. The number of regular lines would be cut as well resulting in more reserve lines/staffing. Finally voluntary unpaid leave of absences would be offered. Those were up to a year and extendable even beyond that at times.

If you can get by on 75 hours of pay, or even better, go on a leave of absence, it might not be so bad. Additionally reserve may go senior, as in the past it was possible to go weeks, if not months without being called out.

If you can afford to drop down to 60 hours a month, it becomes really easy to give away trips. Really easy.

Thank you for the reply, Utah.

Appreciate it! the rumours that spread amongst us new hires tends to be doom and gloom and none of us have been here or in the airline world long enough to really have a clue.

Crediting 70 hours or so a month for me wouldn't be an issue at all. I didn't know that was what happened in years past.

SkyWest has never furloughed anyone in its history. That's not to say it can't or won't happen, but I wouldn't fret too much about this corona virus thing unless it wipes out a third of the world's population or something. Right now, we're working most folks harder than they'd prefer. There's a lot of flex available if we need to slow down flying a bit. I know a lot of folks who would happily scale back to 80 hour lines if given the opportunity.

What he said. Last time it just became really easy to drop trips... best QOL I ever had.

Regionals have longer-term contracts so while majors might park planes immediately regionals tend to keep flying them because they have a contract to do it (might get shuffled around, last time we were flying routes which had been mainline previously). Or the major pays the regional to not fly (saves fuel, etc), but in that case the regional can still afford to pay YOU not to fly.

It's only an issue if the economy crashes and stays crashed... that's a different problem set.

Wouldn’t a reduction in air travel result in 50/75 seat planes being more cost effective on more routes? I know it probably wouldn’t be that simple but the majors can’t keep flying a route with a half full 73 or A320 right?

Of course scope kinda limits the 75 seaters.

Alaska never had either...until they did. History does not guarantee future performance.

Ya. Never say never. But historically the 24 years I've been in the regiinal game. The contract regionals do ok during recessions or global outbreaks...

Thank you for the responses, certainly much better scenarios than a bunch of new hires in a crash pad have been coming up with!

Since United announced a 10% reduction in domestic flying does this mean the regionals will see less flying too? Just curious on how this might impact flying in places like SFO, DEN, IAH, and ORD.