I read in a few publications that NW/Mesaba was parking the 35 ARJ-85's after the first of the year.
I was looking to buzz down to Fla in late Jan and return Feb 1st and low and behold, I see the ARJ on the DTW-FNT route 2-1-06. Anyone with some info that the ARJ will stick around a little longer or is FEB 1st the cut-off date?
safe

An excellent question and one that a whole airline would like the answer on. Some assume the ARJs are waiting for a more favorable lease through the BK process. Some think they may never come back but be replaced by NewGen RJs (of course not by Feb). A bigger question at this point is will Mesaba come back as a NW Express provider. When a whole fleet is being turned in by NW who knows what the answer will be.

Quoting Isitsafenow (Thread starter): see the ARJ on the DTW-FNT route 2-1-06.

Aircraft type and frequency are changed sometimes less than 2 months in advance, so the schedules for Feb. are not even close to finalized.

Quoting Isitsafenow (Thread starter): I see the ARJ on the DTW-FNT

And people wonder why NW is so far in the hole.

Q-400's! Q-400's! Q-400's!!!!! And there are only about 50 more routes like this probably where a Q-400 would be far more efficient. I'd venture to say the fuel savings would pay for the additional lease expenses vs the older ARJ's.

Quoting Tornado82 (Reply 3): I'd venture to say the fuel savings would pay for the additional lease expenses vs the older ARJ's.

Not only that, but the Q400s would probably be far less expensive to operate from a maintenance perspective...both in terms of parts cost/availability, and overall reliability




2H4

I would like to venture a guess that when Mesaba 'dispose' of the ARJ's, Lufthansa regional will pounce on them if they can get them at a nice rate. I saw them roll off the production line at Woodford, saw most of them again in MSP and FAR, and to see them go back to Europe would be ironic!

Cheers

What's happening with the XJ Saabs?

-Mir

Am I correct in thinking that Mesaba was profitable before the NWA deal? And that it was only the NWA deal that caused utter turmoil?

Point is, that the Avros were operated at below optimum capacity due to scope clauses (didn't they have less than 70 seats)? But, even with this, Mesaba still made money. Until NWA put the boot in!

Airways45

What makes a regional profitable is when the contract with the mother company pays to fly no matter how many pax are on board. Fuel increases can skew those figures up beyond a profit margin. Older planes eclipsed by more efficient ones can skew the figures.