sfozrhfco

The last two days QX has had more cancellations than any other carrier in the world--aside from Monarch which has gone out of business. AB is close behind and they are in liquidation. With the announcement that AS is passing 5 more E175s to Skywest, what are the chances that AS just puts QX into bankruptcy and tries to outsource all of the regional flying? Their pronouncements that things will be better by year end seem a bit fanciful given their recent track record.

chrisl137

I think somewhere very early in the thread there was discussion that many Q400 pilots were switching (or trying to switch) to E175 because the pay scale was better. While the training program for one type won't get you qualified for the other, it's certainly possible for a pilot to be qualified for more than one type.

eponymous_coward

Zero. AAG (the parent company) is doing just fine from a profit and loss standpoint. Bankruptcy is something you declare when you cannot pay debts and obligations as part of ongoing operations, not something you declare when your subsidiary is cancelling a lot of flights.

QX is flying for AS (which means they are not at-risk).

flytoeat

Seriously?

Asquared1

Just because your thumb is a finger doesn't mean all your fingers are thumbs

Baze

A pilot can have any number of type certificates but each one requires specialized training on that type. So even though they may just fly the Q400 doesn't mean they aren't qualified to fly the E175 and vice versa. A 747 pilot probably has many type certificates as they most likely did not start in 747's. Whether each of the other certificates is current and valid is another story. Pilots with more than 1 type certificate would probably keep at least a few of them current as a fall back. Look at UA for example, in a vert short time there will be no more 747's in UA's fleet. If the pilot only kept their 747 type certificate valid they would be out of commission until they got another certificate either renewed or obtained. Of course you always want to move up as more difficult types get higher pay but I think they would be fools to give up all the lower type certificates just for the UA case.

metaldirtnskin

At the risk of being extremely pedantic, a "type rating" is what a pilot holds; a "type certificate" is issued to an aircraft.

But on a related note, I am sure that's why many QX new hires want to fly the E175 (and why they need to offer a bigger bonus to start on the Q400): it seems to have a better future career path.

acarney

It kills me that they killed that only PSC to PDX! I loved jumping on that from time to time to do a day trip down to PDX. Now it's like $300 round trip if you want a full day (leave early and return late) down there, before it was like $130 total and you landed at 8 or 9am and returned home at like 9pm! It was great

Baze

Potato potahto.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_rating

sfozrhfco

DL closed down Comair which was also a wholly owned subsidiary and put them into bankruptcy. The chances are certainly greater than zero. QX can't be doing very well financially with the added costs and the constant cancellations. Moving more flying to Skywest just adds to the pressures facing QX.

eponymous_coward

QX is doing capacity purchase flying for AS, not at-risk, as I stated. That means AS has the cost of these problems baked into THEIR side.

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_...WhitePaper.pdf

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/ab.../qx-fact-sheet

This is a historical nuance you may not be aware of.

channa

No they don't. They pay QX to fly for them. When QX can't fly, presumably AS gets some sort of credit (read: QX doesn't get paid).

eponymous_coward

AS is recording the pax revenue for QX flying.

So if QX doesn't fly... AS loses revenue. So does QX, but it's not like at-risk flying for a regional.

channa

Depends what AS does with the people. If people accept the rebooks, AS keeps the revenue.

AS has to OAL people, then AS loses revenue.

If people refund tickets, then AS loses revenue.

In all cases QX loses the compensation for the unflown flight(s)

selkirks

If this were the case (and there's no evidence that there is), why wouldn't AS just fold QX directly into their operations?