I have added a couple E170’s to the fleet tonight and cut 1 CRJ-700.  I hope this does not come back and bite me in the rear, one of the biggest problems with running a VA is MAKING THE WRONG MOVE.  It is like a chess game at times, make a move and either continue on to the next move, or die right there.  Naturally someone is always upset with a move we make and MAN I HATE LOSING PILOTS over something like that.  It happens though.  We are now serving Toronto Pearson, one of my least favorite airports, but I think others really like it.  Its the old Chevy and Ford argument I suppose.

I am really looking forward to the Premier West release, I hope by this weekend.  I started with some of my favorite destinations, Tucson, San Diego, Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario (CA), Santa Anna, Bakersfield just to name a few.  I really hope you guys like them as much as me, short flights are great in my opinion.  Looking forward to Portland too, one of my favorite places to fly, landing over the bridges, breathtaking in FSX.

Taxes being done tomorrow (real world gets in the way) but I hope to get more done on Premier West, gotta get the textures over to David (Director of Fleet Operations).

I am currently working on four projects for GLE, one is the the addition of two new charter routes.  One set will be from Wichita Kansas and the other from Lost Nation Airport in Willoughby Ohio.  The flights from Lost Nation will also cover the islands in Lake Erie, Port Clinton and Toledo.  The other two projects involve the Embraer E170.  We will begin service to Toronto Pearson airport this winter and the plane I believe will be based out of either Detroit or Green Bay.  The other is a replacement of one of our CRJ-700’s with 1 Embraer E170.  I am still working on all of them and it is very time consuming believe it or not.  I am really in need of a day stretcher to get more time.  I hope to have the four items mentioned done this week as well as get 2 routes going for Premier West.  I just don’t think I will get it all done (which frustrated the heck out of me).

Thanks for your time!!

I have completed the painting of the 737-500 aircraft which will be the first to take flight in Phoenix and Las Vegas.  I am now working on the routes for the west coast.  The good news is that most of the routes will be very very short (if you enjoy short flights that is).  Routing the West Coast is relatively simple, there are a few key cities you want to focus on, first the hubs of course, Phoenix and Las Vegas.  Next you want to key in on the most populated areas such as San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Los Angeles and San Francisco can get tricky, LA also has Burbank, Ontario, LAX, Santa Barbara, Santa Anna and Long Beach.  San Francisco of course has SFO as well as Oakland and San Jose.  Each and every one of these airports is very important to get the maximum passenger movement.  Some feel that if you hit one airport in a market that is enough, I beg to differ.  Southwest Airlines does a very good job hitting every airport in the LA / Anaheim market.

Premier West will feature just about every airport in the major markets in California, it will be tricky but it can be done.  Most of the airports other than SFO and LAX are able to turn a plane around in 30 minutes.  LAX and SFO just have to many delays due to congestion.  We will make it work for us though.  We will be featuring high frequency routes much like Great Lakes Express, I am shooting for 12 flight operations per day per aircraft (14 would be ideal).  Once we expand further north into Oregon, Seattle and Canada we will be looking more at 10 flight operations per day.

As mentioned earlier I have completed the design and paint for the Boeing 737-500 freeware and the WILCO / Feelthere model.  If you own it or bought it for GLE you will be pleased we have added it to Premier West.  I am also looking at the possibility of adding the 737-300 WICLO / Feelthere model as well as a freeware alternative.  At this point that is not looking good as I am sure that people would prefer the NG series from PMDG.  By the time PMDG releases the new NGX series 737’s we will be looking at connecting Premier West and Great Lakes Express.  For now though I think the only way we will be able to connect the two airlines may be through Dallas or Denver.  We will not be flying from Premier West hubs to Great Lakes Express hubs, to far and not in our business model.

I got an email from a pilot this morning asking me about regional flights with Premier West.  I responded to him simply saying that we have absolutely NO plans of adding any planes smaller than the 737-500 just as I have said GLE will not see any planes larger than the 737-500.  I have to stick with the original plan.  I also want to state that we will not offer ANY cargo flights any time in the near future nor will we bring back the Canadian Division Premier Airways had.  I think that everyone gets the feel of what we are doing with Great Lakes Express, I am working on that same principle with Premier West (with slightly bigger planes).  So I can put this topic to bed now, Great Lakes National Holding Inc will not be adding any international flights other than flights to Canada and maybe to Mexico, MAYBE MEXICO.  We will not be offering any Hawaii service other than our current charter operations.

OK, all of these no, no, no’s, why???  I want the pilots who are coming back to Premier West to understand that it will not be what they remember, I went a little crazy with Premier (grew to big) before and this will stay very manageable for me, which will make a better airline and experience for you, that I can promise.

I will update this blog once I get some more going with Premier West, thank you for your time.