There was a time when our management would have told us that straight up before it happened. There was communication of both good and bad news. The company stopped talking with the employees and started talking to the employees, thus removing the cornerstone of culture (hint: the culture was not built on grooming the aircraft for free) and they got a union because of that fact. Thank you for your explanation, it's the first one I've heard that took time to discuss some of the reasons why things were done the way they were done.aerobod wrote: ↑Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:30 pm It was certainly an option a couple of years ago to use -700s when Swoop was first discussed and was seen as the least disruptive path, but it obviously was not workable, as one of the basic ULCC principles is maximum seat capacity for an aircraft with a given range that meets the mission needs, the -800 is far more efficient in this respect at 189 seats and the economics are well known from Ryanair operations. The issue with the -800s is that a lot of the early ones had significant configuration variability from a systems and ETOPS perspective, the later ones before MAX delivery are much better in that respect, another important factor in ULCC service. The decision on which aircraft was made in a very pragmatic manner.
This is good information. Voids are often filled with rumour and fear.aerobod wrote: ↑Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:30 pm Also from an accounting perspective, Swoop costs are very tightly monitored and any mainline service provided to Swoop has to be logged under Swoop accounting codes. Before I retired from WestJet IT we had to justify and identify WestJet IT services provided to Swoop at full economic cost, Swoop IT then had to determine whether WestJet or external providers would be more cost efficient to meet their targets. They are very tightly controlled to hit the 7c CAD ex-fuel CASM that has been publically discussed with analysts. Although they are not a separate public company, they are treated effectively as separate from a budget, profit and management perspective, much more than Encore is.
I was in the room when our management specifically told us the Swoop tails would be the lease returns. Several times, in fact, when they were questioned on the matter.