AA Anounces ORD E175 Destinations for Republic
Apr 14, 2013, 9:34 pm
#61
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: YYF/YLW
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Posts: 5,951
At 64/12, the Y/F ratio is also better than all mainline narrowbodies (except maybe the forthcoming premium A321s, hardly a comparison) -- good for upgrades.
Apr 16, 2013, 8:11 am
#62
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 84
"@AmericanAir: @TheFlyGuy2 Andrew, per your earlier question, the E-175s will feature a two-class cabin, but they won’t have ovens."
Apr 16, 2013, 9:00 am
#63
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dallas
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The VAST majority of the travelers on here flying $15k+ a year choose AA due to the perks of that, and many would look elsewhere if the premium/elite product ends up like US (8 seat F cabin, poor upgrade rates, quality of product, etc).
Apr 16, 2013, 12:11 pm
#64
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Austin,TX (AUS)
Programs: AA, UA
Posts: 767
Doug must realize an airline needs to turn a profit to stay in business. I'm sure he understands this. While many like American's model/perks/service/etc, it hasn't reported a profit in many years while US Airways with its LCC model has been profitable the past few years. I highly doubt Parker will choose an unprofitable strategy over a profitable one.
Apr 16, 2013, 12:15 pm
#65
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Austin,TX (AUS)
Programs: AA, UA
Posts: 767
Speak for yourself. In coach, I prefer the 2x2 seating on the E175/E190 to a 2x3 or 3x3 plane, given that the plane is large enough to allow me (6'0") to stand comfortably in the aisles and has room for rollaboards in the overhead bins (albeit perhaps capacity for slightly fewer rollaboards per seat -- not sure). In F, the solo seat on one side is also nice when traveling solo. VA's E190s have ovens (very different market, of course); whether AA's do or not will obviously make a difference in F.
At 64/12, the Y/F ratio is also better than all mainline narrowbodies (except maybe the forthcoming premium A321s, hardly a comparison) -- good for upgrades.
At 64/12, the Y/F ratio is also better than all mainline narrowbodies (except maybe the forthcoming premium A321s, hardly a comparison) -- good for upgrades.
I have flown an E190 before and it is similar to a mainline plane and all seats are window or aisle. The E175/E190 combines the best of a mainline and regional jet.
Apr 16, 2013, 12:34 pm
#66
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Programs: AA PPro, Mariott Gold Elite, Lowly kettle across every other loyalty program.
Posts: 778
One of the reasons I fly AA is how much I hate spending business-class money internationally, and have a 2 1/2 hour flight to a hub in Y on an E140/145 for the same price. Sounds like the 175/190's are much better.
Apr 16, 2013, 1:35 pm
#67
Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
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These comments that the seating on an E175 is worse than a 'real' mainline plane, or even the same as, are ridiculous in my opinion, every E170/E175/E190 I've ever been on (I've been on quite a few for various airlines, including Republic operated ones) has had noticably wider coach seats than any 'real' mainline aircraft I've ever been on, making it noticably more comfortable.
Apr 16, 2013, 2:16 pm
#68
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: ELP
Programs: AAdvantage, Amex MR
Posts: 2,314
Doug must realize an airline needs to turn a profit to stay in business. I'm sure he understands this. While many like American's model/perks/service/etc, it hasn't reported a profit in many years while US Airways with its LCC model has been profitable the past few years. I highly doubt Parker will choose an unprofitable strategy over a profitable one.
US doesn't have the large route network to attract premium travel so they had to do what they had to do. Doug is a smart man, I think we can all relax and know new AA will not be charging for soda or putting ads on the tray tables anytime soon.
Sep 6, 2013, 7:49 am
#70
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dallas
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Posts: 1,523
Well since it came up in another thread, I figured I'd update where and what frequencies the E175s will be on for a sample date of December 12, 2013:
ORDABQ - 2x
ORDATL - 4x
ORDBDL - 2x
ORDDEN - 2x
ORDEWR - 5x
ORDMCI - 2x
ORDMSP - 6x
ORDMSY - 3x
ORDPHL - 3x
ORDPIT - 3x
ORDSAT - 2x
ORDSLC - 1x
ORDYYZ - 4x
ORDABQ - 2x
ORDATL - 4x
ORDBDL - 2x
ORDDEN - 2x
ORDEWR - 5x
ORDMCI - 2x
ORDMSP - 6x
ORDMSY - 3x
ORDPHL - 3x
ORDPIT - 3x
ORDSAT - 2x
ORDSLC - 1x
ORDYYZ - 4x
Sep 6, 2013, 11:14 am
#71
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: AA Platinum, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 731
Having recently done EWR - ORD on one of the older RJs and YYZ - ORD on the E175, I must say the latter is a far better experience.
MCE on the E175 is spacious and if you're boarding early enough, there's no reason to gate check bags.
Nice work AA. I hope the E175 roll out continues to go well.
MCE on the E175 is spacious and if you're boarding early enough, there's no reason to gate check bags.
Nice work AA. I hope the E175 roll out continues to go well.
Sep 6, 2013, 12:14 pm
#72
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dallas
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Posts: 1,523
Amen to that. Flew ORDPIT on one and amazed at the quality and comfort. No valet made a huge difference
Having recently done EWR - ORD on one of the older RJs and YYZ - ORD on the E175, I must say the latter is a far better experience.
MCE on the E175 is spacious and if you're boarding early enough, there's no reason to gate check bags.
Nice work AA. I hope the E175 roll out continues to go well.
MCE on the E175 is spacious and if you're boarding early enough, there's no reason to gate check bags.
Nice work AA. I hope the E175 roll out continues to go well.
Sep 10, 2013, 7:39 pm
#73
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: MCI
Programs: DL FO
Posts: 280
Will get the chance to fly on one on Thanksgiving day from MCI to ORD due to the change of aircraft from MD-82,-83 from MCI to LAX. The second segment is on a 737-800.
Feb 11, 2014, 8:06 am
#74
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 5,825
Where is AA deploying the 25 new E175's that will go in to service in 2014?
Interesting post from the UA forum re Republic:
Interesting post from the UA forum re Republic:
Well another United Express partner is pulling down UA flying. Republic, specifically Chautauqua, have just announced that they're parking all of their EMB-145s that they fly for United and their EMB-140s for American. A total of 27 ERJs are getting parked. United depends on Express carriers for a lot of lift and as these carriers have more problems with staffing due to new pilots rules, United could be in a world of hurt if they don't figure out something.
Here's the email from Bryan Bedford to his staff:
Dear Co-workers,
Good evening, I want to take a few minutes of your time to bring you up to speed on an announcement that will hit the wire tomorrow morning. As you probably have read, United Airlines has made a decision to significantly reduce the number of flight departures at their CLE hub. In their press release, they mentioned that their decision to reduce flight service was prompted by news that some of their regional airline partners were experiencing difficulties in hiring suitable pilots to crew their aircraft. That disclosure has caused quite a bit of media attention as to whether or not we (our country) are experiencing a shortage of qualified pilots. I’ll come back to that question later, but the reality is that our airline, more specifically Chautauqua, is having a very difficult time finding new-hire pilots that meet the 1,500 hour rule AND meet our quality and competency requirements.
It is no secret that many of our small jet, fixed-fee agreements are scheduled to expire this year. In fact, we have 41 ERJs which, unless extended, will expire off contract over the course of this year. Since our successful Chautauqua financial restructuring in 2012, we have consistently said we expect to be able to keep these aircraft in productive service for years to come; however, the pilot staffing challenges are changing that outlook.
Starting shortly after the new law became effective in August of last year, we began to see a steady decline in the number of qualified applicants applying at Republic. As a consequence, by the end of last year, we were concerned enough about the trends that we reached out to all our partners to get their read on the situation and to warn them we could have real problems keeping our aircraft properly staffed. The applicant flow problems continue to persist in the new year and it has become all too clear that we can no longer consider extending all our small jet contracts; in fact, we have asked one partner (United) to accelerate the removal of our 12 ERJ aircraft so we can redirect Chautauqua flight crews to EJET training. Effective April 1, we anticipate ending our Chautauqua ERJ flying for United. We also are no longer able to extend our American Connection agreement covering 15 E140 aircraft. Those aircraft will be removed from service between March 1 and August 15. In total, we plan to remove 27 small aircraft, which we had otherwise expected to continue to operate in to the future.
Of course, this is very disappointing news and will naturally cause some of our co-workers to have real concerns over their personal situations. Wayne is on his way to Louisville to discuss the situation with our team down there, but let me say we see tremendous value in our Louisville base and with our people there, and we have no intention to do anything other than keep it running normally and bring work into the facility to replace the work that may be affected by this development.
We also intend to continue to receive new E175 aircraft for American. Those 25 aircraft are scheduled to go into service this year. And while we have not made any final decisions, we do still have four Q400 aircraft that were anticipated to go in to service this year for United, which we would like to satisfy. Of course, it all depends on our ability to find the kind of women and men who can meet our standards.
So do we have a pilot shortage? Well if you define a shortage as not having enough people that meet the requirements of the 1,500-hour rule and not being able to pass muster with our standards, then yes, we have a shortage, and we are not alone. However, I do not think the country has a shortage of truly qualified pilots, at least not yet. There are ample pilots for today’s needs, but these young people, who have graduated with aeronautical aviation degrees no longer qualify for employment. And there are not enough ways for them to get the hourly time the new law requires. It is a real catch 22, and one you will probably be reading a lot more about for the foreseeable future.
Longer term (and that may only be two or three years away) we will certainly have a much bigger problem, even if the hour requirement is reduced from 1,500 hour to say 500 hours. Why? Because the age 65 rule will mandate retirements for nearly 18,000 mainline pilots over the next 10 years. It started last year with about 1,000 retirements. That number grows steady over the next 10 years. Even under the old system, our country simply does not have the ability to train that many replacement pilots. It’s the same problem countries like China and India have been dealing with for years. We are going to have to develop an entirely new way to train future aviators in this country. But that won’t be much help in the here and now.
Finally, it is reasonable to ask how the lack of a new pilot CBA has affected our recruiting situation. It’s a fair question, but a hard one to answer. It seems reasonable enough that not having a new CBA isn’t helping and certainly may be hurting our efforts in recruiting new pilots now, even though it wasn’t a problem before the new law went into effect last year. However, while we very much want to get the negotiation behind us, the reality is a new CBA won’t create a single new qualified pilot in the USA. I do think it will help bring some people to us that otherwise do not want to consider Republic because of the uncertainty here, but that is a hard thing to quantify. Suffice to say we want to close out the negotiations with a fair deal and, when that happens, if it allows us to hire more pilots such that we could staff more aircraft, of course we will discuss adding these small jets back to service with our airline partners.
For the time being, we should all keep our focus on providing the outstanding levels of service that have become a hallmark of our three great companies. We have faced challenges in the past and as a team, we have prevailed. We will face challenges in the future and, together, again, we will prevail.
God bless,
Bryan
Here's the email from Bryan Bedford to his staff:
Dear Co-workers,
Good evening, I want to take a few minutes of your time to bring you up to speed on an announcement that will hit the wire tomorrow morning. As you probably have read, United Airlines has made a decision to significantly reduce the number of flight departures at their CLE hub. In their press release, they mentioned that their decision to reduce flight service was prompted by news that some of their regional airline partners were experiencing difficulties in hiring suitable pilots to crew their aircraft. That disclosure has caused quite a bit of media attention as to whether or not we (our country) are experiencing a shortage of qualified pilots. I’ll come back to that question later, but the reality is that our airline, more specifically Chautauqua, is having a very difficult time finding new-hire pilots that meet the 1,500 hour rule AND meet our quality and competency requirements.
It is no secret that many of our small jet, fixed-fee agreements are scheduled to expire this year. In fact, we have 41 ERJs which, unless extended, will expire off contract over the course of this year. Since our successful Chautauqua financial restructuring in 2012, we have consistently said we expect to be able to keep these aircraft in productive service for years to come; however, the pilot staffing challenges are changing that outlook.
Starting shortly after the new law became effective in August of last year, we began to see a steady decline in the number of qualified applicants applying at Republic. As a consequence, by the end of last year, we were concerned enough about the trends that we reached out to all our partners to get their read on the situation and to warn them we could have real problems keeping our aircraft properly staffed. The applicant flow problems continue to persist in the new year and it has become all too clear that we can no longer consider extending all our small jet contracts; in fact, we have asked one partner (United) to accelerate the removal of our 12 ERJ aircraft so we can redirect Chautauqua flight crews to EJET training. Effective April 1, we anticipate ending our Chautauqua ERJ flying for United. We also are no longer able to extend our American Connection agreement covering 15 E140 aircraft. Those aircraft will be removed from service between March 1 and August 15. In total, we plan to remove 27 small aircraft, which we had otherwise expected to continue to operate in to the future.
Of course, this is very disappointing news and will naturally cause some of our co-workers to have real concerns over their personal situations. Wayne is on his way to Louisville to discuss the situation with our team down there, but let me say we see tremendous value in our Louisville base and with our people there, and we have no intention to do anything other than keep it running normally and bring work into the facility to replace the work that may be affected by this development.
We also intend to continue to receive new E175 aircraft for American. Those 25 aircraft are scheduled to go into service this year. And while we have not made any final decisions, we do still have four Q400 aircraft that were anticipated to go in to service this year for United, which we would like to satisfy. Of course, it all depends on our ability to find the kind of women and men who can meet our standards.
So do we have a pilot shortage? Well if you define a shortage as not having enough people that meet the requirements of the 1,500-hour rule and not being able to pass muster with our standards, then yes, we have a shortage, and we are not alone. However, I do not think the country has a shortage of truly qualified pilots, at least not yet. There are ample pilots for today’s needs, but these young people, who have graduated with aeronautical aviation degrees no longer qualify for employment. And there are not enough ways for them to get the hourly time the new law requires. It is a real catch 22, and one you will probably be reading a lot more about for the foreseeable future.
Longer term (and that may only be two or three years away) we will certainly have a much bigger problem, even if the hour requirement is reduced from 1,500 hour to say 500 hours. Why? Because the age 65 rule will mandate retirements for nearly 18,000 mainline pilots over the next 10 years. It started last year with about 1,000 retirements. That number grows steady over the next 10 years. Even under the old system, our country simply does not have the ability to train that many replacement pilots. It’s the same problem countries like China and India have been dealing with for years. We are going to have to develop an entirely new way to train future aviators in this country. But that won’t be much help in the here and now.
Finally, it is reasonable to ask how the lack of a new pilot CBA has affected our recruiting situation. It’s a fair question, but a hard one to answer. It seems reasonable enough that not having a new CBA isn’t helping and certainly may be hurting our efforts in recruiting new pilots now, even though it wasn’t a problem before the new law went into effect last year. However, while we very much want to get the negotiation behind us, the reality is a new CBA won’t create a single new qualified pilot in the USA. I do think it will help bring some people to us that otherwise do not want to consider Republic because of the uncertainty here, but that is a hard thing to quantify. Suffice to say we want to close out the negotiations with a fair deal and, when that happens, if it allows us to hire more pilots such that we could staff more aircraft, of course we will discuss adding these small jets back to service with our airline partners.
For the time being, we should all keep our focus on providing the outstanding levels of service that have become a hallmark of our three great companies. We have faced challenges in the past and as a team, we have prevailed. We will face challenges in the future and, together, again, we will prevail.
God bless,
Bryan
Feb 11, 2014, 10:15 am
#75
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2001
Location: LAX; AA EXP, MM; HH Gold
Posts: 31,789
I expect to see more 44 and 50 seat RJs parked this year for the dual reasons of the looming pilot shortage discussed in that letter and the arrival of numerous 2-class 76-seaters.
New AA isn't awash with extra 76-seaters but the merger does free up some of them as the duplicative routes are rationalized (like ORD-PHL, which has both pmAA and pmUS flights).
I think the CLE hub pull-down by UA is just the beginning. Here at pmUS, the Dash8 turboprops are probably history before too long, as well as numerous 50-seat CRJs at pmUS. Those pilots will be needed to fly the larger RJs on order. Although Boyd can be an arrogant blow-hard at times, I think he's completely correct on the rapid retirement of large numbers of 50-seaters.