Sun, Jun 29, 2008
Company Moving Up Plans For Transition To Single Aircraft Type
Fleet
Yet another airline is making significant changes to its
operations to adjust for rising fuel prices. Horizon Air announced
a number of changes to routes and fleet Friday in the hope of
combating rising costs.
The airline had previously announced its plans to transition to
a single fleet flying 76-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft. The move
would phase out its current operations with the 37-seat Bombardier
Q200 turboprops and the 70-seat Bombardier CRJ-700 Regional Jet.
Originally slated for a target date of April 2009, the airline has
moved up the timetable to replace the Q200 completely by October
28, 2008. The transition to a single Q400 fleet will be complete by
the end 2009 according to company statements.
Horizon announced many changes to routes impacting cities in the
Northwestern and Western U.S. to accommodate the fleet shuffle. As
a result, some markets will see reduced flights and others will
have new service added. All schedule changes are expected to appear
in the Horizon Air reservation system by July 5, 2008.
An Essential Air Service contract held by Horizon Air to provide
service to the Pendleton, OR market is currently in negotiation
with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Currently Horizon
provides three daily flights to Portland, OR with Q200 equipment,
two of which are subsidized by the EAS program. Horizon proposes a
new service with larger Q400 aircraft providing two daily flights
to Seattle, WA in its place beginning October 28. The proposal is
awaiting a decision from the DOT.
Horizon Air also announced it will be discontinuing service to
Klamath Falls, OR and North Bend/Coos Bay, OR as of October 11 due
to lack of profitability of the routes.
“Despite our best efforts to adjust flight schedules and
fares in order to make these routes financially viable, consistent
profitability has proved to be elusive,” said Dan Russo,
Horizon’s vice president of marketing and communications.
“The astronomically high fuel prices have only made the
situation worse, and so we find ourselves with no choice but to
reduce our losses by taking this action.”
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