Why to avoid E75 and E90's for the next month
 

Here's some info from the Company's internal news written by Montie Brewer:

"We had some reliability issues with the Embraer 190, which affected the 190 performance and also took manpower away from other aircraft thus impacting the performance in the rest of the fleet. Some of the solutions that are being implemented to address this problem include a modification program for the 190s underway in Calgary and Nashville, and keeping a spare Embraer aircraft to help us maintain schedule integrity. Embraer has a number of people in Calgary to assist us with the mod program – the first phase of which will be complete by the end of March and this should have a positive impact on our reliability."

I flew AC400 yesterday morning on an E a/c (was too tired to pay attention). Just a smooth ride without any glitch...

This is not a surprise.

First/second buyers of a new aircraft type most always are the proverbial guinea pigs who experience various aircraft snags.

Aeronautical history is full of examples; to wit the classic 747 experienced early snags.

This is frustrating for the airline who experience reliability and dispatch issues and aggravating to the travelling public who are inconvenienced by requent delays due to mechanical/avionics issues.

However..that too shall pass as the snags are worked out of the fleet.

It would however be refreshing if AC could take a page out of US Airways communication with frequent flyers and acknowledge the problem and tell people what to expect. After all, it is not a safety issue but one of reliability of dispatch.

Its too bad this guy(gal?) whyfly doesn't see the benefit of AC showing their skirts a little and heaping some praise for them on an issue that is not AC's fault.

Momentum: :D Welcome to FT. You'll soon get to know some of the cast of characters hereabouts, and see why what you would suggest is very unlikely ;)

Thanks for the welcome.
I've been lurking for some time now and realize that the cast of characters won't change but its worthwhile to mention the issue.

I was on an E90 flight recently from DEN to YYZ, and the in-flight Purser was speaking quite freely about Embraer reliability issues for "winter flying". In the FA's opinion, the Brazilian aircraft maker's planes were not well suited to winter flying in Canada.

This seems a bit bizarre and probably just attributed to one FA's bias, but his opinion may also have been shaped by the technical problems they are experiencing. In his words "the Embraer's are more comfortable than Bombardier aircraft for the passengers, but don't handle the Canadian winter very well". However, I think it is more likely teething issues with Embraer rather than any kind of inherent design flaw. For the record, I am pretty happy with the retrofitted Bombardier CRA 700's, finding them only marginally less comfy than the Embraer aircraft. And given greater fuel efficiency, I would rather fly in the CRAs.

SG

Aren't the CRAs new? (i.e., not a retrofit.)

Sorry for the confusion - yes they are new and no they have not been retrofitted. What I meant to say is I like the seats in the 700's that contain AVOD, which are a lot nicer than the "original" 700 configuration. For some reason, the first generation had really lame seats.

SG

This is heresy in whyfly's eyes! He hates AC as much as he hates BBD!!!;)

A large part of the plane's troubles have been tracable to the very cold weather we have been having. With temperatures starting to creep up, the problems have been diminishing. I wouldn't hestiate to book one myself. Basically, I like to do the opposite of Why Fly says. Usually works out much better.

Since OP cut & pasted verbatim from Monte's internal and presumably confidential message to staff, we can assume he must be gotten it from an inside source. Any repercussions against the leakee likely? Or is AC unlikely to bother seeking that person out?

FWIW, I don't have a problem with passing on verbal info from inside staffers as was the case just prior to the new elite package announcement because it's somewhat only speculation unless the contact is the decision-maker, so even the info is not always 100% reliable. We all know someone who knows someone after all. Also sharing publicly available information such as PR, etc., is kosher by me however I am much less comfortable with sharing word-for-word communications between management and staff. Just my two cents...

Isn't he just copying from our Oakvillain friend on The Place That Shall Not Be Named?

:confused: At the bottom of page 7 of that thread on The Place That Shall Not Be Named whyfly repeats Monte's message verbatim as was posted in OP of this thread.

Which came first the chicken or the egg? And what does it matter where the "info" came from or which sources did the telling;) whether it was an annointed Prince or not?
At least it's on topic to the AC forum:D ^ ! Hopefully AC can be more proactive about it's problems, on the face of things they still haven't learned this........

Confirms my suspicion and those of others about Embraer metal. There was a cold day almost a month ago when most Embraer got cancelled but Airbus continued to fly. Do you think AC gets compensated for any planes that are grounded or delayed? I hope they fix their problems too b/c AC seems to be sticking with them for the long haul. Should we call it a bikini plane - good to look at but better suited for sun and sand? AC should stock up on WD-40s. :p

Correct. But there is also another thread where the same text had been posted earlier by our other friend.

Ah, yes. Still don't think it kosher.

Odd how FT postings were blamed for last year's closure of AC Horizons, which was a public website, yet nobody seemed too concerned about this disclousure from a much less public site. Nonetheless, kudos to taupo for calling it right:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=577994

yup

FT postings weren't the reason why ACHorizons was shut down. All employees and retirees finally had access to the corporate portal, which allowed access behind the firewall, like every other major company in the world.

Sure was spun that way at the time.

There is nothing wrong with having some Corporate info made public if it furthers the understanding of the corporation's goals and problems that affect the public.

Sounds like a very subjective litmus test and open to a great degree of personal interpretation. You say it's okay this time but what about next time when the furtherance of the understanding of the corporation's goals isn't the priority?

At the risk of putting too fine a point on this matter, I don't feel we can pick & choose what's fine for widespread dissemination and what isn't as to me it's all internal company info from a supposedly private and confidential source.

I could agree with you if it was done randomly. I would think someone wanted that particular message to get out as it answered a lot of questions. People have been speculating for some time about the Embrauers.

Leaks are leaks and most corporations have that problem with internal communications which makes it even more important for them to keep their shareholders and customers fully and openly informed.

Granted, full and public disclousure should be encouraged but the irony to me was were some here to divulge something less than flattering about AC and quote verbatim from an employee only, private & confidential source I have no doubt the hue & cry from the apologists, for lack of a better word, would be loud and long. Take, for example, a news story like when the AC plane diverted to YWG because of smoke in the cockpit from burnt cookies and suppose that info hadn't made the mainstream press but was contained in an internal memo circulated to prevent the situation from happening again. Now suppose that internal memo was leaked to make the airline look bad. Would you feel the same way or are only embarassing or damaging leaks to be frowned upon? There's the subjective part.

To me it's like insider trading; it doesn't matter the reason you're doing it or whom you're trying to help or why, it's still insider trading.

That's a little dramatic I say.

Thanks for proving my point; subjective judgement that what some would call dramatic, others wouldn't.

Now that the door to a private and confidential AC-only source has been breached, the apologists can't complain down the road if other news "leaks" out.

True, or at least, it should be true.

But I thought we were talking about AC. And as we all know, that knowledge is utterly alien to the AC spin doctors. From what I have seen, they are totally convinced they know better (i.e. their customers are stupid) and they are going to fool everyone everytime.

From what I've seen here they are not totally wrong about the "stupidity" bit if these pages are filled with typical customers.

:D :D :D :p

I like the AC E75s that I've flown between Chicago and Toronto. The seats and IFE are good.

Does Clive have access to this site yet?

That probably explains why my flight from YEG to YYZ tonight shows as [back to] a A320 rather than the E90 that had been operating this flight for most of the winter. Will be interesting to see what it turns out to be in reality, and if it is an A320, if it will be an XM. I've found lots of aircraft changes on day-of-flight, including as I've noted before E90s for E75s, CRJs for DASH8s and A320s for A319s (likely due to larger loads on some routes).

Gee, cold weather in Canada, who'd have thought:rolleyes: Obviously not Embraer. Temps haven't been far outside the norm. Nice to see that someone at AC finally ackonwledged the problem with these planes.

Maybe in Vancouver but here in Toronto we had the coldest February in 28 years, fifth coldest ever, and it's minus 12 here today.

That may be Toronto's coldest. But that's not cold.

One would hope that AC does not look at planes and low temperature operation by the Center of The Universe (tm) standards.

I dont hate BBD I hate taxpayers $ paying for them.

Oh and the E75 and E90 will be going in for repair jobs soon... read all about it;) Jetblue just got some "rentals" so they can send the plane in for a refit.
AC should announce something similar soon.

It might be hard for "others" on here to admit the planes have some issues. THey dont deal in facts:D

That's a pretty rich statement. How about "RM bankrupted a monopoly" ?

Heard on the radio today that Jetblue will be grounding its Embraer fleet to fix software glitches.

Just wait until the next recession.

:D