Just heard through a good source that Cleveland based UAX operator, CommutAir (C5), will be closing it's CLE crew base and MX facilities starting in June of this year. The CLE aircraft will be redeployed to the IAD and EWR operations. The MX facilities will be slowly relocated to ALB. It appears that the operational headquarters will remain in CLE for the time being. This was expected with UA's announcement of CLE's dehubbing.
First, my heart goes out to the CLE based employees, many of which will be forced to make a tough decision. All employees are being offered relocation assistance.
For discussion, with the redeployment of the aircraft, all Dash 8 Q200 and Q300 models, could we see new routes or would we expect increased frequency on current markets. Also, could we see CommutAir Dash 8s operaring out of other UA hubs? ORD and IAH come to mind with smaller markets. I think IAH would be great with the loss of Colgan Air's Saab flying. What do my fellow A.netters think?
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting 9lflyguy (Thread starter): Also, could we see CommutAir Dash 8s operaring out of other UA hubs? ORD and IAH come to mind with smaller markets. I think IAH would be great with the loss of Colgan Air's Saab flying. What do my fellow A.netters think? |
I don't think C5 (which is a lovely airline, btw) has a large enough fleet to meaningfully serve more than 2 or 3 hubs, and the trouble with operating the Q200/Q300 is that there's not a lot of opportunity to grow with those types.
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting 9lflyguy (Thread starter): could we see CommutAir Dash 8s operaring out of other UA hubs? ORD and IAH come to mind with smaller markets. |
In February it was announced that the CLE flights to FNT would cease June 4th and then it would be switched to ORD starting June 5th. Here is the story on the subject:
Courtesy: MLive - February 3, 2014
Cleveland Out In Favor Of More Chicago Routes From Flint For United, Says Bishop Official
"Although United's announcement to no longer operate a hub in Cleveland came as a surprise to some, Corfman said Bishop and airline representatives have been talking about potential service fallout since the merger of United and Continental Airlines in 2010."
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...ishop_airport_official_says_u.html
[Edited 2014-04-27 18:49:05]
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- RyanairGuru
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting 9lflyguy (Thread starter): could we see CommutAir Dash 8s operaring out of other UA hubs? ORD and IAH come to mind with smaller markets. |
I think if ORD was likely it would have happened by now, as they could easily route the aircraft to and from the CLE base via a secondary market in Ohio or Indiana but chose not to.
IAH would have to be out. C5 don't have the scale to have multiple bases (especially for mx) all across the country, and routing a Dash 8 from IAH to IAD would be a pain. Theoretically it could do something like IAH-BNA-IAD, but I don't think that UA would want to use them on sectors that are that long.
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting 9lflyguy (Thread starter): For discussion, with the redeployment of the aircraft, all Dash 8 Q200 and Q300 models, could we see new routes or would we expect increased frequency on current markets. |
As a "flip-side" to your question, I recently had a conversation with a ExpressJet Check Airman who claimed that XJT would soon be the only UAX carrier in CLE. Take it for what it's worth...
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
Being at KSU I know a bunch of guys who just were hired by C5 within the past few months through the bridge agreement. I hate to see what will happen to them.
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
Who do you think will takeover their C5's MX hangar?
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- sldispatcher
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting 9lflyguy (Thread starter): Also, could we see CommutAir Dash 8s operaring out of other UA hubs? ORD and IAH come to mind with smaller markets. I think IAH would be great with the loss of Colgan Air's Saab flying. What do my fellow A.netters think? |
Had you suffered through years of the burning heatness in those SAAB's during Deep South summers (which last 8 months) you would not be wishing something like that on your own worst enemy.
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
In my opinion, as a person very familiar with Commutair, the airline which operates as United Express, places a bad reputation on United. Commutair has terrible performance. High cancellation and maintenance delay rates. I think United should have terminated the contract. No offense to the employees of C5, but the airline tarnishes United's image and UA is in no position for any more tarnishing. Commutair has great employees and my heart goes out to them to the ones that are losing their jobs because they can't relocate or are have to move to an expensive base far from their families.
[Edited 2014-04-28 06:00:07]
[Edited 2014-04-28 06:00:07]
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
I've already seen some Q200 routes becoming Q300 routes in the IAD schedules this summer. I'm sure some of the really short jet routes from EWR/IAD will also be moved over to the dash 8 where able.
"Nobody" is always a possibility.
Expressjet
That said, which regional should they keep? I
| Quoting bjorn14 (Reply 6): Who do you think will takeover their C5's MX hangar? |
"Nobody" is always a possibility.
| Quoting KarlB737 (Reply 2): In February it was announced that the CLE flights to FNT would cease June 4th and then it would be switched to ORD starting June 5th. Here is the story on the subject: |
Expressjet
| Quoting coairman (Reply 8): In my opinion, as a person very familiar with Commutair, the airline which operates as United Express, places a bad reputation on United. Commutair has terrible performance. High cancellation and maintenance delay rates. I think United should have terminated the contract. |
That said, which regional should they keep? I
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting kcrwflyer (Reply 9): |
I think UA should keep expressjet as their main United Express carrier. Expressjet seems much more reliable than other regional carriers. I don't know much about skywest.
Ua is already on the move on tge FNT market. Substituting out FNT-CLE Comuttair flying with Expressjet FNT-ORD flying. That is a step in the right direction.
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting coairman (Reply 11): I think UA should keep expressjet as their main United Express carrier. Expressjet seems much more reliable than other regional carriers. I don't know much about skywest. |
I don't know where you are getting the idea that XE is "more reliable" than anybody; in February, 2014, XE had the highest rate of cancellations and delays of any reporting carrier, cancelling or delaying more than half of its scheduled flights.
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- masseybrown
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting coairman (Reply 11): I think UA should keep expressjet as their main United Express carrier. Expressjet seems much more reliable than other regional carriers. |
That's not the case. They have the same problems any other regional does... sometimes exacerbated by their own devices.
| Quoting Cubsrule (Reply 12): I don't know where you are getting the idea that XE is "more reliable" than anybody; in February, 2014, XE had the highest rate of cancellations and delays of any reporting carrier, cancelling or delaying more than half of its scheduled flights. |
Impressive.
| Quoting DashTrash (Reply 10): None. |
Lol
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- flyinryan99
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
Let's be honest here...with only 20+ aircraft and spread over 3 hubs, how does anyone really think any airline can run a real reliable operation? I would think they would run a much better op with only 2 hubs, even better with one.
I just don't get how mainline carriers think that regionals can spread themselves so thin and expect a reliable operation...I think this is a good thing to consolidate down for C5.
I just don't get how mainline carriers think that regionals can spread themselves so thin and expect a reliable operation...I think this is a good thing to consolidate down for C5.
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting coairman (Reply 8): Had you suffered through years of the burning heatness in those SAAB's during Deep South summers (which last 8 months) you would not be wishing something like that on your own worst enemy. |
As an ex-Colgan crew member who was based on IAH. I know what it was like first hand. The Q300 has an APU which would help a bit in IAH but I must agree that it's highly unlikely.
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- INFINITI329
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
What if C5 takes over the UAX q400s from Republic which would free up Republic to do more e jet flying for UA?
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
I doubt C5 wants the Q4. That plane is a hot mess MX hog. I think Republic's completion factor their first month with the 400 was under 50 %
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting flyinryan99 (Reply 15): I just don't get how mainline carriers think that regionals can spread themselves so thin and expect a reliable operation |
Because the schedule is submitted to the regional by the mainline carrier and after some tweaking it goes back to the mainline carrier for approval. Regionals will bend over backwards and basically say "ok" to any schedule that is given to them so they don't lose the business. In the end most of the time you get a crappy product from most of the regionals because when they were looking at it on paper it seemed good but once it was put into motion they finally saw where the issues would be. Every regional goes through it, only some are better then others at actually fixing the problems they incur.
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- flyinryan99
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RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting crj900lr (Reply 19): |
I'm not an airline planner/scheduler but even to look on paper that you have 3 hubs of flying and less than 30 aircraft just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I'm not just blaming the regionals here, it's the major carrier's dumb decision too. It just doesn't make business sense to me, but I guess that's why I'm not in the airline industry much anymore....
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting Cubsrule (Reply 12): |
Cubsrule......All I am saying is from my personal experience with XE and C5, on a regular basis, C5 cancels alot of flights due to maintenance much more frequently than expressjet. In addition to cancellations, 20-90 minute maintenance delays are way too common during a turn.
Can someone find performance stats on the web for C5 vs. XE?
[Edited 2014-04-30 04:45:35]
RE: CommutAir To Close CLE Crew Base And MX
| Quoting FlyHossD (Reply 4): As a "flip-side" to your question, I recently had a conversation with a ExpressJet Check Airman who claimed that XJT would soon be the only UAX carrier in CLE. Take it for what it's worth... |
That not exactly hard to accomplish. We are going to be running under 50 flights per day and still maintaining the same mainline service (around 25). So that only leave around 20-25 flights for a Regional.
That being said, I can see the SkyWest E175's being deployed into CLE. But with SkyWest/ExpressJet technically the same company, your check airman will be right.
| Quoting 9lflyguy (Reply 16): As an ex-Colgan crew member who was based on IAH. I know what it was like first hand. The Q300 has an APU which would help a bit in IAH but I must agree that it's highly unlikely. |
God please no more props in IAH. That was hell.
What year were you doing that flying? My wife was IAH F/A for a while with Colgan.
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