What's up with ASA?

[blackwings]

Hey everybody? Just wondering what your take is on ASA and their place in the industry? Is this a good place to go or is thier merger with Skywest likely to be thier downfall? A friend of mine told me that the Skywest deal was a raw one. What do you guys know about it?

[surreal1221]

their - NOT thier.

I'll leave this one to the Anti-ASA crowd. . .albeit, that's not the whole Skywest pilot group.

[blackwings]

Thanks a lot Surreal! I didn't realize that you were an English teacher too. Maybe you can tell me more about nouns and subject verb agreement instead of answering airline questions.

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by blackwings

Hey everybody? Just wondering what your take is on ASA and their place in the industry? Is this a good place to go or is thier merger with Skywest likely to be thier downfall? A friend of mine told me that the Skywest deal was a raw one. What do you guys know about it?

Check my signiture, I'ma pro ASA guy. They're in my top two choices of regionals and believe it or not Surreal is a big time pro ASA guy!

Having said that things are definitely not the greatest at ASA. As I'm sure you know they got purchased by SKYW.

They've been at the negoiating table for 5 years, and still no new contract. Morale to say the very least isn't that great. The pilots were going to be whipsawed against SKYW, but chose the higher ground, and didn't underbid SKYW.

As a result they had all their 900's taken and are now wearing SKYW registrations. Not sure if there has been any real growth at ASA, if I had to gamble I'd say no. But the pilots are making the best of an impossible situation and trying to make ASA a better place, with a fair contract.

It's always darkest before night, and todays regional or mainline toad, will be tomorrow's prince or princess. So go figure.

Lastly, upgrade time is down to about 3 years and falling I hear. For more info, check out this page.

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airli...l-lcc/asa.html

Hope this helps!

[surreal1221]

Originally Posted by blackwings

Thanks a lot Surreal! I didn't realize that you were an English teacher too. Maybe you can tell me more about nouns and subject verb agreement instead of answering airline questions.

You're welcome.

Also check my signature. . .I'm a very pro-ASA guy, an Atlanta native, and would much rather not have to commute. So if you want information, not from the company's website, about the current contract negotiation (aka standstill), check out the alpa.org/asa/ site.

My wife is an English teacher, so . . . it filters over to me . . . especially after someone has used incorrect spelling more than once, in a single post. Sorry if that gets you a bit heated. I'd rather correct you than someone at HR looking over your resume and throwing it into the trash because they want someone who can spell.

[blackwings]

Okay, thanks a lot guys for the info. I really appreciate it. I didn't know about the info that you could get on ALPA's site. I'll be sure to check that out. I don't know a whole lot about the airlines but I'm learning. I like ASA and its good to know that someone else agrees with me.

[Comair 100ER]

They're always late...like 50% of the time.

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by Comair 100ER

They're always late...like 50% of the time.

And they got eight of Comair's 700's, so what's your point???

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Comair 100ER

They're always late...like 50% of the time.

Actually, they are late only 36% of the time (arrivals) with an average delay of 57 minutes. Comair is late 33% of the time (arrivals, 54 minute delay average) - so much better than ASA!!

Just to give you an idea of how they rank - Pinnacle arrivals were late only 23% of the time. Hell, even MESA came in ahead of ASA and Comair with only 28% of flights arriving late (although their avg delay was longer).

** - Stats from the DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics July 2006-June 2007

[BobDDuck]

And FYI they didn't have their 900s "taken away". They were never their's to being with. Remember, it's all Delta's flying and being a WO (or even a former WO) doesn't mean crap.

[Comair 100ER]

Originally Posted by Maximillian_Jenius

And they got eight of Comair's 700's, so what's your point???

Now what does that have to do with anything? My point is that ASA is always late, and it's a pain working with them and flying on them.


For the record I don't fly for OH. I just picked it as my nick name. So knock on OH all you want, it doesn't bother me.

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

And FYI they didn't have their 900s "taken away". They were never their's to being with. Remember, it's all Delta's flying and being a WO (or even a former WO) doesn't mean crap.

I heard the 900's were originally supposed to go to ASA, But because they didn't vote in lower pay rates et al, they were "punished" with no new planes and no new growth. Yes, they're property of DL. But originally they were to go to ASA and not SKYW.

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by Maximillian_Jenius

I heard the 900's were originally supposed to go to ASA, But because they didn't vote in lower pay rates et al, they were "punished" with no new planes and no new growth. Yes, they're property of DL. But originally they were to go to ASA and not SKYW.

Well, IMO, good for ASA for not caving. We were "punished" I guess by NWA by having 15 CRJs we were currently flying moved (or supposed to be moved soon) to Mesaba. Note: I didn't say OUR CRJs. Why? They're NWA's CRJs. Welcome to the world of contract flying. The only way I would say those were ASA's (even if they were "promised" to them) is if ASA bought them and marketed the routes they were supposed to fly. Anything else is subject to being moved around at Delta's whim.

One of the reason we actually got a contract with Delta was b/c we were the ones buying the -900s. They're ours for sure since we bought them. Now, the ROUTES we fly them on are Delta's. If Delta decides they don't want us on those routes anymore, then we have -900s sitting on a ramp not generating cash. But, I guess it's cool since they'd be "ours."

[BobDDuck]

Originally Posted by kellwolf

...then we have -900s sitting on a ramp not generating cash. But, I guess it's cool since they'd be "ours."

ACTUALLY.... 4 of those -900s were ours, but we didn't cave on pay rates and Airways didn't want to pay for them if nobody was going to fly them cheap.

(rereading that, it sounds like you guys caved on rates... that's not what I meant. I just meant the airframes were designed for us to be used as a carrot to get us to drop the rates.)

[kellwolf]

Yeah. Remains to be seen what happens on rates.

The bid for the -900 came out, but there's a HUGE push going on for no one to bid it until we get rates for it. Arbitration date is sometime in Nov with a decision sometime in Dec. Which means the first guys to bid the -900 are gonna be flying it for an unknown rate.

[Tim]

At the top of the banner in Sunday's AJC job section the ASA ALPA union had paid for a banner talking about the delay in their contract negotations. Click to next screen and it was there again. I guess they wanted to get the message out. There was also a billboard on 85 north at the airport entrance for a while saying the same thing.