Welcome to exNWA.com
Today's Date:
This site is dedicated to the Honorable people, those who did not cross the picket lines at Northwest Airlines, commonly referred to as SCABair. Now that Delta and NWA are one carrier, Delta now picks up the moniker of SCABair, because they employ the same SCABS that NWA had.
This site is intended for use by the Honorable. This is where the voice of the Honorable will be heard, along with other things of interest. This site is independently owned and operated and is advertisement free. Enjoy. Make sure you refresh your browser to view the latest updates.
Week-end edition
Another fad over with? There go more jobs...
Airline Era Ends as Carriers Cull 50-Seat Jets `Nobody Wants'
By Mary Jane Credeur and Mary Schlangenstein
The 50-seat jets once prized by carriers such as Delta Air Lines Inc.
are being culled from U.S. fleets as higher fuel and maintenance bills
make them too expensive to fly.
By 2015, U.S. airlines will have about 200 jets with 50 or fewer seats,
down from about 1,200, said Michael Boyd, president of consultant Boyd
Group International Inc. in Evergreen, Colorado. More than 80 have been
scrapped in 2010, he said.
“These are litters of aluminum kittens -- nobody wants them,” Boyd said.
Their only value is for recycled metal, he said. “The next stop is the
Budweiser factory because that’s all they’re good for.”
Delta’s Comair unit underscored the turnabout with its Sept. 1 move to
get rid of three-fourths of its 50-seaters after pioneering their use in
the 1990s. Regional jets flew about twice as fast as turboprops, and
crude oil at about $20 a barrel made them affordable to operate.
The drawback was spreading costs over about a third as many seats as in
a Boeing Co. 737. With oil averaging $77.93 this year through Sept. 2,
up 39 percent from 2009, airlines favor regional jets that can carry 70
or more people and fly less often, or new turboprops.
Comair’s move to shed 53 Bombardier Inc. CRJ-100 and CRJ- 200 jets is a
“defining moment on the long road to 50-seat oblivion,” said Richard
Aboulafia, an analyst at consultant Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia.
‘Look Awful’
“The economics are awful, especially in a time of high fuel prices,”
Aboulafia said. “It makes sense if you’re focused on market share, hub
preservation and other really outmoded concepts. But if you’re focused
on profitability, then 50-seats begin to look awful.”
Comair President John Bendoraitis told employees in a memo this week the
Cincinnati-based carrier needed to “dramatically change course” with
steps that include chopping the fleet to 44 planes by 2012. Before cuts
in the 2008 recession, the total was 131. Comair’s oldest CRJ-100s
average 14 years old, according to Ascend Worldwide Ltd., adding to
maintenance expenses.
U.S. passengers and airlines embraced regional jets when Bombardier and
Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA entered the market in the 1990s.
Use of models with 50 or fewer seats peaked in 2007 at 1,420, up from
110 in 1997, according to London-based Ascend, which compiles fleet
data.
‘Far Too Fast’
“The growth in this aircraft type was far too many, far too fast,” said
Douglas Runte, managing director at Piper Jaffray & Co. in New York.
More-comfortable turboprops such as Bombardier’s Q400 and airline labor
contracts favoring bigger regional jets helped erode the one-time
advantages of the smallest planes, he said.
Embraer and Montreal-based Bombardier are now selling or planning models
able to carry more than 100 people, part of what Bombardier predicts
will be a $393 billion global market for jetliners with 100 to 149 seats
in the 20 years ending in 2029.
Bombardier and Embraer, based in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, have
gained 16 percent in the past year. Runte said a recent auction of used
50-seat jets posted sales of less than $3 million each for planes
appraised for as much as three times that sum.
“With profits being as thin as they are, the cost of operating those
airplanes is something that has to be overcome with high levels of
traffic,” said David Swierenga, president of consultant AeroEcon in
Round Rock, Texas. “We haven’t seen that.”
Comair’s Future
Delta sold regional subsidiaries Mesaba and Compass to Pinnacle Airlines
Corp. and Trans States Holdings Inc., respectively, in July. A Comair
spokeswoman, Kristin Baur, said Atlanta-based Delta continues to study
options for Comair. Delta said a review was under way before its 2007
bankruptcy exit.
In June, American Airlines parent AMR Corp. said it would evaluate
possibly divesting its American Eagle unit, whose 218- jet fleet
consists mostly of Embraers with 50 or fewer seats.
Passengers probably won’t lament the vanishing of the smallest planes.
The overhead bins typically can’t handle roll- aboard luggage
accommodated on bigger planes, and window seats can seem cramped because
of the curvature of a narrower fuselage, according to travel website
SeatGuru.com.
“You feel like a sardine, and forget about trying to open your laptop
and getting any work done,” said Pete Luttmann, a salesman at technology
firm Dolphin Corp. in Cincinnati.
Luttmann, 47, estimated he flies 60 to 70 times a year, mostly on
regional jets. “It’s very claustrophobic.”
If oil prices remain in the $75 per barrel range and businesses continue
to be conservative with travel budgets, the retirement of 50-seaters may
accelerate, said consultant Boyd.
“The small-jet airplane era is over because the economics simply are not
there,” Boyd said. “They couldn’t make money with $50 oil, and they sure
as heck can’t make money at $75 oil. The only people who love these
50-seaters are the chiropractors who have to fix what they do to
peoples’ backs.”
Letter from U.S. office of Special Counsel to the President of the United States, concerning investigations into non compliance of AD's at NWA/Delta. Read it here (this is a pdf file)
Stupid is as stupid does...
Man run over by car he was pushing up a hill
A 20-year-old man is in extremely critical condition after he
was run over by a car he was trying to push up the hilly street known as the
Manayunk Wall. Police said the man's girlfriend was behind the wheel of a
disabled 1996 Volvo sedan on the 200 block of Levering Street about 4:15 man
when he attempted to push it uphill. The sedan rolled backward, dragging the man
25 to 30 feet before hitting a parked car and coming to a halt.
Donate to exNWA.com:
Donating to exNWA.com is made easy by going to the "donate"
page. There you will find a PayPal link that makes it easy to donate.
One does not even have to be a member of PayPal to make a donation. Use
your charge card or send an electronic check. You may also mail us your
donation. We appreciate any donation
you can make to keep this site on the internet. Of course your donations are
not tax deductible. This site survives on the generosity of our viewers.
Our Beautiful USA
Niagara Falls, NY
.
