Swift Air has some (seasonal ?) EU operations, IIUC. Still don't know why they'd put out an ad like that though. They do their own recruiting.

It appears the reincarnation of Midwest Express is making some noise:

https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news...tional-airport

Apparently Airbahn has reached the recruiting stage:


https://www.jsfirm.com/job/Pilot-Fix...a/jobID_539617



https://www.jsfirm.com/job/Pilot-Fixed+Wing/First+Officer/Irvine-California/jobID_539621

One airplane ?:

http://pkaviation.com/2018/12/20/air...a-new-airline/

Perhaps he will pay their student loans.

He's been quite silent on details saying only that he considers getting airplanes to be his biggest problem.

Here's another one. Hasn't this business model been tried before ?:

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/n...launch-in-2h19

Sky Palace Airways ? Even Google didn't offer much info on this one. Has it died on the vine ? Did it exist previously under a different name...Sky King perhaps ?

https://opencorporates.com/companies...2018-000827931

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/n...narrowbody-ops

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-a-gray-47a70838

https://www.jsfirm.com/Sky+Palace/18026/companyprofile

Disney Airlines ? Really ? What "smaller regional airlines" ?


"The Disney Company will acquire smaller regional airlines to focus it’s operations on offering flights out of Orlando to and from major airport hubs including Detroit, Chicago, LaGuardia, and LAX."

https://justdisney.co/disney-launchi...sney-airlines/

I guess reincarnation counts as start up ?:

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/n...n-xtra-airways

GA,

I'm almost willing to say the Disney thing is some kind of joke. The Blind Men and the Elephant are speculating Disney will buy Sun Country Airlines. Um, ok. I'll believe it when I see it. :suspect:

Disney does have a lot of money.

That's for sure. And Sun Country is privately owned so that might simplify a purchase:

"Sun Country Airlines is a privately held company based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, has more than 35 years of experience..."

https://www.suncountry.com/about

Well, this is interesting. The 2nd link mentions that it'll be 30 airplanes in a combination of scheduled and charter ops:

"David Neeleman has started the process of setting up another airline in the US in addition to the planned Airbus A220 operator Moxy. Neeleman is in the process of securing another air operator’s certificate (AOC) for the carrier that will operate a fleet of Embraer E1 E195s."

https://atwonline.com/airlines/neeleman-establish-another-us-airline-used-e195s?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Fee d%3A+AtwDailyNews+%28ATW+Daily+News%29

https://theaircurrent.com/airlines/n...g-azul-e-jets/

A little more info:

"Plans call for the E2s to eventually replace all the E1s, as many as 30 of which Neeleman said he planned to start sending to the U.S. to launch a new low-fare airline next year. The new carrier would operate on a certificate separate from the AOC that Neeleman has secured for an Airbus A220 operation scheduled to launch in 2021 in the U.S., loosely known as Moxy."

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...2-brazils-azul

This is the first mention I've seen of Moxy and pilot supply other than a previous vague statement that it'd be "innovative". What they describe below is hardly innovative:


“One of our challenges there is an acute pilot shortage in the U.S.,” says Trey Urbahn, who’s involved with Moxy and also works closely with Neeleman at TAP as the Portuguese carrier’s chief strategy officer. He notes that new rules adopted by the Department of Transportation following the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo in 2009 require that all commercial pilots in the cockpit have a minimum 1,500 hours of flying time; previously, a co-pilot could begin with as little 250 hours. “The result is that there are fewer people entering the profession,” he says. “With an increasingly small pool, we need to have competitive pilot salaries to attract them from regionals,” where pilots typically begin their careers. Moxy is “looking at creative ways to create our own pilot pool,” Urbahn says, such as establishing an in-house training program. “You have to get people really early in their careers, when they first decide they want to be a pilot.”


https://www.cntraveler.com/story/all...mestic-airline

Update: The reincarnation of Midwest Express
 

The reincarnation of Midwest Express has published a news release: "Midwest Express today revealed the Elite Airways aircraft, complete with exterior Midwest Express branding, that will service initial flight destinations to Cincinnati, OH (CVG), Omaha, NE (OMA), and Grand Rapids, MI (GRR). The plane was on display at a news briefing at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport where travelers were treated to the legendary Midwest Express chocolate chip cookie that will be baked onboard all Midwest Express-marketed flights."

I worked for RAH during their 'too big for their shoes' acquisition of Frontier and Midwest Express, and it was distressing to see their passenger-centered company culture chipped away one chocolate chip at a time until they were literally none left. At the time, in his internal company letters, Bryan Bedford blamed his inability to turn around Midwest on the fierceness of Southwest Airline's competition at MKE (aka, Southwest was cross-subsidizing profitable hubs to lose money on $50 fares out of MKE).

In more capable hands, will there be much of a difference in the end result? I can't imagine they have a revolutionary new business plan to beat SWA...

This below is a post by a guy on APC who actually had a chat with Neeleman about the pilot side of Moxy. Not clear how it would actually work but it's a bit of info:

havick,

Yes, that bit of information creates more questions than it answers. A 14/14 schedule ? That's tough sledding even with home basing. Maybe it's ok for a B747 cargo outfit but for a fledgling start up ? I dunno. I'll just predict he gets all the pilots he needs regardless.

Fun to watch in any event.

havick,

Yep, lots of issues to be resolved. So far, I haven't seen anything about their pilot recruiting that's "innovative" as promised early on in the emergence of Moxy as a concept. Perhaps I've missed something ?

"...regional+ 20%..." ? What does that mean ? I suppose you could look at JB's 1st year pay rates on the E190 for a comparison but I don't see a start up paying even those rates.

So what type of pilot leaves their stable current regional job or corp job to go to a start up for a 20% pay rise? It appears this factor is not costed into the pay rate.

PA,

Hard to say for sure. They'd have to be willing to roll the dice on it becoming something bigger and better down the road. Risk/reward and all that.

Time will tell who shows up...probably more willing people than one would imagine based on Neeleman's track record. The younger and more footloose a person is the more risk he can take because he'd have time to recover from a failure of the experiment.

The critical group will be the captains as their experience will be needed from the start.

The recruiting ads will be interesting...

What is this ? Avatar Airlines ? 747s ? They seem to have a bunch of management people lined up for whatever that means:

https://avatarairlines.com/

Should have figured this out. I thought the concept sounded familiar...pretty entertaining but never say die:

"Nevada-based Avatar was originally incorporated as Family Airlines in 2004, and adopted its current name nearly about a decade ago."


https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...us-747-462457/

I looks very ambitious. I wonder why so many people wants to get in the airline business. It is such a ruinous business, so many fail.
If they sell well pax and cargo they may succeed.

Is Neeleman tipping his hand on the Moxy project ?

“Breeze Aviation will locate their corporate headquarters in Salt Lake, Utah. The company plans to create 369 jobs in the next five years.

Breeze Aviation plans to unveil an as-yet-unnamed low-cost carrier in the new year which will provide flyers with convenient non-stop service from secondary airports.

The company was founded by David Neeleman…”

https://www.areadevelopment.com/news...ake-utah.shtml

World Wings Airways ? Listed as a concept airline founded in 2016 but they're now advertising for A320 F/Os. I can't tell if this is just a renamed version of an earlier concept airline...Airbahn perhaps ?:

https://www.latestpilotjobs.com/jobs/view/id/10720.html

https://worldwingsairways.com/

https://gust.com/companies/world-wings-airways

Perhaps it's not Airbahn ? Here's some bio on the guy behind it, Mike Moghrabi:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-moghrabi-11707a20

Neelman has something to prove, in a good way, not and FU way. If you want to listen to a great, "how I built this" click on his. I'm sure others have posted this many times, but I'll say it again, I wouldn't bet against him and his projects.

A few pilot-related comments from Neeleman re Breeze (Moxy). Still no specifics but rather hints without details. In post #11 in this thread, Neeleman promised "innovative approaches" to recruiting pilots. So far, he''s said nothing about pilot recruiting I find innovative.

Not sure what that last statement means: "procedures" that attract pilots ?:

I asked you last time about the biggest concern you had with launching a new airline, you said it was addressing the pilot shortage. How do you solve this with Breeze?

We are hiring pilots and we are going to create a great bunch of work, so people are going to love flying for us.

It’s always going to be a battle, but we have our own unique plans to create our own pilots as well.

There’s a lot of pilots out there that are great but need to accumulate up to 1500 hours and we are going to help them do that.

You are going to raid the regional airlines out there for pilots and American Airlines, who is getting rid of its Embraer E190s?

A lot of the regional pilots already have the type rating on the airplane, we can create attractive schedules for their quality of life which is what they care about. After you get to captain and seniority, they will be able to go to the A220s.


We have a lot of attractive procedures that we believe will attract a lot of pilots.

https://airwaysmag.com/interview/david-neeleman-breeze/

A few more details about Breeze. Still no details about what they consider competitive qualifications:


“Acknowledging the worldwide shortage of pilots, Neeleman said he had no concerns about finding enough crew for the new venture.”

"Further details can be found on the Breeze Airways recruitment microsite." [last sentence in linked article]

https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2...d-other-staff/

I guess this is sort of a start up. Looks like they bought the XTRA Airways AOC and plan to turn it into something bigger ?:

"The company, operating as Houston Air Holdings Inc., is 'getting ready to spool up to transform this little charter airline we bought,' Andrew Levy said in an interview Wednesday."

:Levy left United Airlines Holdings Inc. in May 2018 to work on forming a startup airline. Three months later, he purchased XTRA Airways Inc., a Florida-based charter carrier. XTRA’s parent had sold most of its fleet to Swift Air, but kept one Boeing 737-400 to retain its Part 121 commercial airline certification."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...up-u-s-airline

I was deadheading on a flight just over a year ago, and the lady sitting next to me was one of the management team members that is putting this thing together. At the time, she said the plan was to get 737MAXs, but it looks like it will be 737-800s. She was one of the founders of JetBlue and long time management of Southwest. She said this new company would be the next southwest, flying point to point, using secondary airports if possible. I asked her how that was different than Moxy and Allegiant, and she said they were going to be leading edge with technology, but it looks like Moxy/Breeze says they will be leading edge with technology. So, who knows.

At least it isn’t Avatar Airlines.

Z,

Did the woman say what XTRA had been doing with that one airplane ?

They have to keep one airplane on the certificate to keep the certificate active.

Z,

Understand. So they must be flying the occasional charter rather than letting the airplane sit and deteriorate ?