Shuttle America Airlines flew into history last night as its last flight operated from LGA to DFW TCF3284 arriving at 12:28 am this morning. All former Shuttle America operations have now been folded into Republic









-m

Sad to see, but I'm surprised it took this long. It had to be inefficient operating it as such a small subbrand, especially in the regional business where margins are razor thin.

atcsundevil wrote:

Sad to see, but I'm surprised it took this long. It had to be inefficient operating it as such a small subbrand, especially in the regional business where margins are razor thin.

For scope clause reasons, they were required to, until recently. Something to do with Republic flying 175's that held 80 seats and Delta scope clause not allowing for regionals to operate a plane over 76, regardless of who they operated for.

DiamondFlyer wrote:

For scope clause reasons, they were required to, until recently. Something to do with Republic flying 175's that held 80 seats and Delta scope clause not allowing for regionals to operate a plane over 76, regardless of who they operated for.

There was also a United contractual clause which prohibited regional carriers operating under the United Express brand from operating to or from UA hubs under the brand of a different carrier (and IIRC OO may have had an exception). The three regional carriers at Republic (Chautauqua, Shuttle America, and Republic Airline) were all set up to be able to operate in compliance with the various major carrier scope restrictions. If memory serves, Republic bought the S5 certificate back when they started operating the E170 for US at Chautauqua. The AA scope clause with APA prohibited regional carriers other than MQ (American Eagle, now Envoy) from operating aircraft with more than 50 seats; I believe Republic was paying a penalty to AA or the union for violating that scope until the E170s were on the S5 certificate rather than the RP one.

I'll miss the 'Mercury' call-sign when listening to ATC.

Interesting to note that the "new" airline name is officially Republic Airline. Not sure why the company omitted the "s"

Republic was having issues getting up and running. ALL the 170 flying was supposed to be at Republic (I had my transition class date). But when the UA and DL flying came on the line they had to buy a certificate to move it to (as CHQ had been flying it in violation of the AA scope). It was costing $1M/month. So RAH bought S5 for $1M and transferred the 170 flying to it (from CHQ). Meanwhile, Republic got their certificate and commenced the US flying.

Sad to hear will miss them

I imagine that was a bit of an operation as I believe the entire DL Shuttle fleet stayed with S5 until last night, so they had to change over the "Operated by" decals on all the aircraft and all the safety cards and registration placards.

Glad I got to fly them in in their last month of operation.

So what's going to happen with Delta Connection flying? From what I am gathering Republic only flies for American Eagle and United Express.

FlyUSAir wrote:

So what's going to happen with Delta Connection flying? From what I am gathering Republic only flies for American Eagle and United Express.

Republic now flies for Delta Connection as well as a result of the merger. Nothing is happening to the Delta flying. As a matter of fact, Republic is adding 6 E170s to further strengthen the Delta flying starting in April.

This was the final step to bringing the ops under one umbrella. All of the workgroups have been combined for some time now, at least seniority wise.

KCaviator wrote:

FlyUSAir wrote:

So what's going to happen with Delta Connection flying? From what I am gathering Republic only flies for American Eagle and United Express.

Republic now flies for Delta Connection as well as a result of the merger. Nothing is happening to the Delta flying. As a matter of fact, Republic is adding 6 E170s to further strengthen the Delta flying starting in April.

Thank you! Was curious.

I wonder if at this point they're going to fold the airline into the holding company and simplify that out as well?

I've always been curious about these regional carriers that operate under the branding of larger airlines. Republic Airline operates flights under the UA Express/AA Eagle (and now DL Connection) brands but how does that work as far as employees? Could a Republic FA or pilot work a UA Express branded flight before switching over to an AA Eagle branded flight or do they try and keep the FAs and pilots under one brand (UA Express, AA Eagle,or DL Connection)?

KCaviator wrote:

FlyUSAir wrote:

So what's going to happen with Delta Connection flying? From what I am gathering Republic only flies for American Eagle and United Express.

Republic now flies for Delta Connection as well as a result of the merger. Nothing is happening to the Delta flying. As a matter of fact, Republic is adding 6 E170s to further strengthen the Delta flying starting in April.

Well, I don't know that I'd use the word adding. Delta Connection is moving the only other 6 170's in the fleet from the midwest and west coast, previously operated by Compass, to LGA to be operated by Republic.

DiamondFlyer wrote:

KCaviator wrote:

FlyUSAir wrote:

So what's going to happen with Delta Connection flying? From what I am gathering Republic only flies for American Eagle and United Express.

Republic now flies for Delta Connection as well as a result of the merger. Nothing is happening to the Delta flying. As a matter of fact, Republic is adding 6 E170s to further strengthen the Delta flying starting in April.

Well, I don't know that I'd use the word adding. Delta Connection is moving the only other 6 170's in the fleet from the midwest and west coast, previously operated by Compass, to LGA to be operated by Republic.

Correct. I guess I meant Republic is adding 6. As for DL, it's a net gain/loss of zero.

fraspotter wrote:

I've always been curious about these regional carriers that operate under the branding of larger airlines. Republic Airline operates flights under the UA Express/AA Eagle (and now DL Connection) brands but how does that work as far as employees? Could a Republic FA or pilot work a UA Express branded flight before switching over to an AA Eagle branded flight or do they try and keep the FAs and pilots under one brand (UA Express, AA Eagle,or DL Connection)?

They can mix.

I'm confused, .......so please help me out with the history.

They went Ch 11/Ch 7 or they were merged into the parent's operation? Did they have a parent?

What were their original routes and what year and what equipment?

Let me shed some light as to how it works for flight attendant's working different flights for all 3 majors at YX Exclusively:

Post YX/S5 merger the YX hubs/bases will operate as follows:
(the carriers listed next to each city will have trips (ie. pairings) that start and finish in said city; therefore a crew base will operated from said city)

CMH: American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express
DCA - AA HUB: American Eagle, American Shuttle, United Express
EWR - UA HUB: United Express
IND: American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express
LGA - DL/AA HUB: American Eagle, American Shuttle, Delta Connection, Delta Shuttle, United Express
MCI: American Eagle, United Express
MIA - AA HUB: American Eagle
ORD - UA HUB: United Express, Delta Connection, Delta Shuttle
PHL - AA HUB: American Eagle
PIT: American Eagle, United Express

*I think we will be seeing the new YX move more more towards having crew bases in HUB cities. Look out for changes coming soon....and additions....IAH is a strong rumbling.

Looking at the above, you will see that some bases operate flights for all 3 majors while some offer 2 or just one carrier. Let's say if I were an LGA Flight Attendant, for the last 2 years YX has been exclusively American Eagle and recently also American Shuttle. Meaning, they ONLY flew American trips. Now post merger, LGA Flight Attendants can fly AA, DL, or UA trips. Each pairing or trip is airline specific meaning it will not be a trip mixed with AA one day, Delta the other, and UA the next. As FA's we are required to have with us pieces for all 3 carriers when working but that is more heavily focused on RESERVE Flight Attendants rather than line holders who seldom are reassigned from their original trip. Then you take a base like MIA that ONLY operates AA, that means flight attendants based there will work trips out of MIA that are only AA flying. But again, RESERVE flight attendants in MIA can be used anywhere in the system for any carrier at any given time.

Uniforms:

Yes, while AA,DL, UA have to agree on uniforms for FA's that work for all 3 that is slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past and I would not be surprised to see the majors require us to be more uniform specific. As is this the case with DL, starting in Q1 2018 YX will also be wearing the new DL uniforms for DL flying. Sign of things to come perhaps?

Anyway, that is some insight into ever growing and evolving airline. Excited for the future at YX!

I remember seeing those Shuttle America branded Dash-8's in BDL when they first started as BDL was their HQ. I believe the first route was BDL-BUF around 1999.

uconn99 wrote:

I remember seeing those Shuttle America branded Dash-8's in BDL when they first started as BDL was their HQ. I believe the first route was BDL-BUF around 1999.

Yes, an interesting game plan to be sure, I hoped they would have succeeded as an independent. Not to be.

727LOVER wrote:

I'm confused, .......so please help me out with the history.

They went Ch 11/Ch 7 or they were merged into the parent's operation? Did they have a parent?

What were their original routes and what year and what equipment?

They both were operated under the patent of Republic Airways Holdings for quite some time.

It's amazing how much has changed at Republic since I was a Chautauqua FA in 2010. At the time there was Chautauqua, Republic, & Shuttle America flying as American Connection, Continental Express, Delta Connection, Midwest Connect, United Express, US Airways Express. Republic also still owned Frontier. It makes sense now to get everything on one certificate.

FAs were allowed to bid for a transfer between Chautauqua, Republic, & Shuttle. The transfer had to also include what base at that airline you wanted. If your transfer was approved you had to attend initial training again for that new certificate, 3 weeks in IND. I knew some FAs who had flown for all 3 airlines. You were only allowed to transfer back to a previous airline if they opened a new base, and you bid for that new base.

Flying reserve it was very rare to fly for more than one airline in a single day. All line trips were for one specific codeshare. It was hard to remember all the differences and I found myself sometimes welcoming pax aboard the wrong airline. When I was there only AA had different uniform pieces. We wore the AE wings and were not allowed to wear the epaulettes on our shirts. Female FAs could purchase the AA red cardigan and the AE blouse.