Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

St. Louis-based Trans States Airlines plans to cease operations on April 1, marking the first airline casualty of the Covid-19 crisis in the U.S. The United Express regional partner had planned to draw down operations gradually before going out of business by the end of the year, but United Airlines has decided to accelerate the closure as part of its 50 percent reduction in flying in April and May.

 


“We received word last night that the immediate cuts to our schedule are far deeper than we had feared and that the accelerated drawdown of our operations will be faster than we ever could have imagined,” Trans States CEO Rick Leach wrote in a memo to employees on Tuesday.

 


As of late February operating 41 Embraer ERJ-145s, Trans States has suffered mightily with cost overruns and a&nbsp;shortage of captains over the past 18 months, leading to&nbsp;a late February&nbsp;decision to shutter the business by year-end.&nbsp;

 


In a February 24 memo to employees announcing the original draw-down plan, Leach cited moves by U.S. major airlines to shift aircraft among their partners&nbsp;to simplify and create “critical mass” among fleet types and reduce geographic overlap of flying as a major reason for financial distress within the regional industry at large.&nbsp;United, for one, continues&nbsp;to consolidate and restructure 50-seat jet flying among its various regional affiliates, most recently announcing a major fleet addition at its ExpressJet partner.

 


What Leach called “razor-thin” profit margins throughout the industry has burdened regional carriers&nbsp;with a need to fly every airframe for as many hours as they can; in Trans States’ case, a captain&nbsp;shortage resulted in an inability to meet productivity objectives and contractual flying obligations. The imbalance between captains and first officers had become so acute that the St. Louis-based airline said that it canceled a first officer class already in session while delaying others, a move that inevitably would have resulted in reduced flying even absent the coronavirus outbreak.

News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

U.S. Regional Airline Trans States to Close on April 1

The St. Louis-based United Express partner has accelerated its original plan to draw down operations by year-end. 

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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