The U.S. airline industry last month felt the opening tremors of what could become the biggest shakeup in the business since the introduction of the regional jet. On August 15, US Airways announced a plan to fly 50- to 69-seat RJs within its mainline system, using mainline flight crews as part of a far-reaching reorganization effort. The regional jet plan alone, part of the first phase of a three-phase strategy to lift the nation’s sixth-largest carrier from its financial doldrums, would generate a profit improvement of $132 million a year, according to US Airways president and CEO Rakesh Gangwal. The US Airways boss said he could execute the plan to replace short-haul mainline aircraft with 60 regional jets immediately, regardless of the airline’s ability to negotiate new pilot pay scales before the airplanes go into service.
A US Airways spokesman told AIN that the airline began talks with all three established regional jet manufacturers “a few weeks” before the August 15 analyst meeting, during which Gangwal and company chairman Stephen Wolf announced the restructuring plan. US Airways has taken formal sales proposals from the contenders, and hopes to conclude negotiations “as quickly as we can,” said the spokesman. During the analyst meeting, Gangwal estimated that the company would begin replacing mainline airplanes–Boeing 737-300s and Fokker 100s now based in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh–on a one-for-one basis with the 60 regional jets by next year’s second quarter.
