Dynastar

Quote:
"Horizon Air today announced a firm order for 15 additional Q400 high-speed turboprops and 20 options from Bombardier Aerospace of Canada. By transitioning from three to two aircraft types by late 2009, Horizon will gain the major economic advantages that fleet simplification provides, allowing it to offer customers even greater fare values in the future."

Read all about it here.

I love the Q400s, great to hear QX is getting more of them.

beckoa

I may be a decenter on this, but I "think" I prefer the Q200 over the Q400, due to the exit row in the middle of the aircraft. Yes, the Q400 is quieter, but with my QC2's, it is negligible, and the smaller size allows for a wider schedule of flights to choose from, when traveling from PUW. Then again, I've only traveled on the Q400 twice, so I am not positive on these advantages, but just what I think currently.

sea_jeff

I kind of liked the Q200s row 4 seating.

Definitely good news on the 400 though regarding fares. I anticipate they will be a bit better to PDX with the 400s.

westcoastman

Horizon will probably need to pick up some routes from AS when they retire the MD-80's such as LGB where they have been testing their planes.
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...646post7549646

CZBB

Hmm, with the retirement of Q200s, are there not some cities that are going to lose service? When your smallest plane is a 70 seater, I can't see how they'll keep flying to a number of [thin] destinations

eastwest

Even though the Q4 has twice as many seats as the Q2, it doesn't cost anywhere near twice as much to operate. AFAIK, QX isn't dropping any cities as they get rid of the "Baby Dash."

Also, trading Q2's for Q4's won't equate to half as many flights in and out of places, either.

I think the Q400 is a fantastic plane for QX, and it's also a win for the flying public.

JohnneeO

Looks like this is already happenning on the SEA-RNO route.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=671024

sxf24

Pullman is at the greatest risk of losing service. Not because of lack of demand, but because the community is reluctant to let larger aircraft fly in on a regular basis.

mattime

Where did you get that info. I thought they beefed up the runway to accomodate larger jet aircraft? The flight path is right over the university, and they haven't expressed any displeasure with noise...at least when I was there. They depend too much on the service!

Like other posters say, discontinued service to Pullman, Wenatchee, and Kamloops kinda scares me. The Q400 served PUW for a few schedule cycles, then was dropped. So I'm scared for good reason.

beckoa

This would be a major inconvinece for me... They did beef up the runway, and there was talk of having larger (maybe even jet?) aircraft in for the school holidays- to help get all of the students out of there. I know lots of students who would fly them if the price was a lot lower RT... if comparable to GEG...

I am from ANC so I rely on this service though, so it woud truly suck if they ended service to PUW.

I know that the flight path is over WSU- I can usually tell what time it is when I hear a plane pass overhead. Kinda cool to see them fly past my dorm though. And the noise is not really an issue IMHO. Larger aircraft do fly in on occasion like the A319 that the football team charters from Frontier, and various private biz jets.

sxf24

The runway can accomodate larger aircraft and does, on a waiver basis. My understanding is that there would have to be significant adjustments to the runway/taxiway configuration, which has been resisted.

BW Flyer

Even though it may cost the same to operate the Q400 as the "baby dash", but will AS' bean-counters understand this when they see the load factor drop to less than 40% on most flight flying into those thin markets such as PUW, EAT, and OTH ?

I too am worry about those thin markets, unless their routes are being subsidized by the Fed.

BW

mattime

United operated in PUW for a while back in the early 90's I believe. Thier affiliates still have smaller aircraft...who knows.

arizonadogg

I think this is why they are starting to combine routes, like this summer adding SEA-BZN-IDA. The plane then leaves IDA going to BOI, LWS, and onward to SEA, and then it reverses...I think you are going to see a lot more of that...like they used to do BOI-PIH-IDA-BOI...

Icelandair

The Q400 really is a win/win for everyone. For the company, it only takes about 3 more people on board than a Q200 to break even, so there are many more seats available for profit. For the traveling public, the aircraft travels almost 100 mph faster than the 200 model, reducing flight times. It is also quite quiter than the 200 model as well because of the more effecient six bladed props.

As for PUW, I've seen a Frontier Airbus fly into there, so the 400 will have no difficulty serving the city. The big problem is the weather in the city in the winter, which will also be helped with the 400 airplane. The 200 couldn't do the GPS based instrument approaches, so if the clouds weren't above 600 feet the airplane couldn't get in. The 400 is capable of doing GPS approaches which can get the airplane in when the clouds are lower than with 200s, which should help with weather reliability in the winter.