What will the new AA regional system look like?

by | Mar 1, 2013 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

The new AA Regional System

The following page is a merged combination of the AA and the USAirways regional codeshare systems, from this websites database. It includes percentage of regional feed to mainline narrow-body fleet under the new AA regional system. Also like the other regional codeshare breakdowns it reflects the percentage of the total regional feed of each regional “partner” , and the percentage of each regional aircraft type.

A couple of interesting things to note. When the merge is approved by the Bankruptcy court the USAirway’s pilots will be covered under the APA contract and the MOU. The American Pilots MOU slightly modifiy’s this contract but will still require regional aircraft to be limited to 76 seats and 86,000 lbs. Nevertheless, it will grandfather in 76 aircraft that are below the 86,000 lb limit but are seated with more than 76 seats. The regional percentage of mainline narrow-body aircraft will rise from 65% to 75%. As somewhat a trade for this, the overall allowable domestic code-share will be reduced from 50% down to 15%. A substantial gain for the APA and USAPA pilots. The large amount of domestic code-share should be unnecessary due to the large network the AA and USAirways merge will provide.

The regional aircraft in the system beyond 66 seats will still be limited to 40% of the total mainline narrow-body fleet in 2016.

What does all this mean?

With systems merged there is room for approx~ 30 more aircraft under the system before 75% is exceeded. The Republic award should put the new American fleet beyond 75%. Unless

  1. The combined mainline narrow-body fleet grows by just over 30 aircraft in the next year, subsequently making room for the additional regional aircraft beyond the current limitations.
  2. Regional capacity is retired at another regional airline in the system.
Under the American Eagle Pilots agreement with AMR they were furlough protected to 60% of the Regional feed for American or a charted number in the contract; whichever was less. This clause only remains in affect if they did not merge.
If they do merge another set of clauses go into affect, which are a bit more complicated. It should be noted though that 95% of the pilots currently at Eagle upon date of approval of the Bankruptcy court should be furlough protected. Interestingly, in the event American Eagle does retire Eagle aircraft and therefore becomes overstaffed and unable to furlough because of this agreement then it will boost the percentage of training slots. The boost at American could be up to 50-60% depending upon circumstances. In short this is how the New American will be incentivized to reduce its fleet at other airlines besides Eagle, who may not have the same protections or long term contracts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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