If the 2020 college football season is played as scheduled, will there be enough charter aircraft for teams to charter?

For years, college football teams, the NFL, and even the NCAA basketball tournament have had issues getting enough charter aircraft.

Now, the domestic airline industry and charter industry has changed dramatically. The major legacy carriers will return with smaller fleets (up to 30%) and the charter industry has already seen popular charter airline Miami Air start liquidation.

Not only with smaller fleets, American (5 full fleets) and Delta, who added their 767 fleet to their retired list as I wrote this, are both prepared to retire older aircraft on a faster scale through 2021. United has yet to announce their retirement list.

An aircraft on the ground is one which doesn't make money, so taking it from a popular route to charter a team on Friday afternoon to a regional airpost and possibly sit 24 hours is not going to occur anymore.

This will be just another added expense to an athletic department, so I hope that somebody has been watching this shake down.

(05-14-2020 08:24 AM)Renandpat Wrote:  If the 2020 college football season is played as scheduled, will there be enough charter aircraft for teams to charter?

For years, college football teams, the NFL, and even the NCAA basketball tournament have had issues getting enough charter aircraft.

Now, the domestic airline industry and charter industry has changed dramatically. The major legacy carriers will return with smaller fleets (up to 30%) and the charter industry has already seen popular charter airline Miami Air start liquidation.

Not only with smaller fleets, American (5 full fleets) and Delta, who added their 767 fleet to their retired list as I wrote this, are both prepared to retire older aircraft on a faster scale through 2021. United has yet to announce their retirement list.

An aircraft on the ground is one which doesn't make money, so taking it from a popular route to charter a team on Friday afternoon to a regional airpost and possibly sit 24 hours is not going to occur anymore.

This will be just another added expense to an athletic department, so I hope that somebody has been watching this shake down.

On the other hand, those "popular routes" aren't going to be so popular. So flying from Wilmington on Thursday afternoon to Tulsa, sitting in Tulsa overnight before flying to Dallas, then flying from Dallas to Wilmington on Sunday morning might be the most revenue-generating way to use that plane.

The airline bailouts are requiring the carriers can run as few as one flight a day from an airport if it was a region that had daily service.

For NYC metro since it has multiple airports they only have to run one flight out of any of them a day to meet the daily service requirement.

Now if the would just scrap the non-conference season it would be easier since the teams could bus during conference play. In fact they kind of have to in FB with so many people.

TV deals are really paying for conference competition anyways.

(05-14-2020 09:06 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  The airline bailouts are requiring the carriers can run as few as one flight a day from an airport if it was a region that had daily service.

For NYC metro since it has multiple airports they only have to run one flight out of any of them a day to meet the daily service requirement.

Now if the would just scrap the non-conference season it would be easier since the teams could bus during conference play. In fact they kind of have to in FB with so many people.

TV deals are really paying for conference competition anyways.

This would not be possible for some conferences. e.g. the AAC, C-USA, the Sunbelt, the ACC, the PAC-12, etc. And not likely even in the Big-10 or the SEC. Gone are the days of the SWC.

(05-14-2020 09:06 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  The airline bailouts are requiring the carriers can run as few as one flight a day from an airport if it was a region that had daily service.

For NYC metro since it has multiple airports they only have to run one flight out of any of them a day to meet the daily service requirement.

Now if the would just scrap the non-conference season it would be easier since the teams could bus during conference play. In fact they kind of have to in FB with so many people.

TV deals are really paying for conference competition anyways.

Seems to me that means there are plenty of aircraft and crews available or charters.

(05-14-2020 09:06 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  ...
Now if the would just scrap the non-conference season it would be easier since the teams could bus during conference play. In fact they kind of have to in FB with so many people.

TV deals are really paying for conference competition anyways.

is there any FBS conference outside of the MAC that can really bus to most games?

(05-14-2020 04:42 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(05-14-2020 09:06 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  The airline bailouts are requiring the carriers can run as few as one flight a day from an airport if it was a region that had daily service.

For NYC metro since it has multiple airports they only have to run one flight out of any of them a day to meet the daily service requirement.

Now if the would just scrap the non-conference season it would be easier since the teams could bus during conference play. In fact they kind of have to in FB with so many people.

TV deals are really paying for conference competition anyways.

Seems to me that means there are plenty of aircraft and crews available or charters.

Today, Delta also said they have 2,500-3,500 more pilots under contract than they'll need in the fall under ideal operations.

Available aircraft after some go to the Boneyard? Likely
Available pilots? Definately
Capital available to have the legacy carriers still offer charters as opposed to keep the plane in the air as much as they legally can? That's the question for the ADs.

The commercial airline industry manages demand to capacity, not capacity to demand and they'll always fail with that strategy.

EDIT: And popular charter airline, Sun Country, has less in their fleet in 2020 because they struck a deal with the DOT to reduce passenger service to become the sub-contractor for Amazon Prime Air, which began in April.
Link: https://www.aircargonews.net/airlines/fr...or-amazon/

(05-14-2020 07:53 PM)Renandpat Wrote:  Today, Delta also said they have 2,500-3,500 more pilots under contract than they'll need in the fall under ideal operations.

It's worse than that. That's the projected number of pilots needed in fall 2021 after a large chunk of expected retirements over the next year. For fall 2020, according to that article, Delta says they have 14,500 pilots but only need 7,500 for the flights they hope to be able to make this fall.

Quote:Delta told its 14,500 pilots that it expects to have 7,000 more than it needs in the fall, according to a memo to flight operations employees first reported by Reuters.

If that percentage holds true over Delta's entire business, then their business will be about half of what it was last year, and they would need to layoff, furlough, or give early retirement to 48% of their workforce.

(05-14-2020 08:06 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(05-14-2020 07:53 PM)Renandpat Wrote:  Today, Delta also said they have 2,500-3,500 more pilots under contract than they'll need in the fall under ideal operations.

It's worse than that. That's the projected number of pilots needed in fall 2021 after a large chunk of expected retirements over the next year. For fall 2020, according to that article, Delta says they have 14,500 pilots but only need 7,500 for the flights they hope to be able to make this fall.

Quote:Delta told its 14,500 pilots that it expects to have 7,000 more than it needs in the fall, according to a memo to flight operations employees first reported by Reuters.

If that percentage holds true over Delta's entire business, then their business will be about half of what it was last year, and they would need to layoff, furlough, or give early retirement to 48% of their workforce.

I did not mention the federally mandated retirement pilots within their current ~14K.

The larger and older planes like the 757 and wide body 767 are also being retired, so in an era of "social distancing", you cannot separate a FBS travelling party as much. What is in a FBS travel squad?
70 players
Head Coach + Family
10 assistants
Medical/Training Staff
AD + other administrative staff

A typical 737 has generally 160 seats in First and Coach.


That's why I kinda started this thread. It is a "known unknown" for some Assoc. ADs needed to realize as soon as planes were grounded and the airlines were reporting they were bleeding millions per week. I hope somewhere, a man or woman in an executive role took 30 minutes to think, "How the F are we getting to games if the airlines fail or dramatically cut back?"
I even sent this dilemma to both Ralph Russo and Stu/Bruce as an observation.