Continental hopes turboprop planes ease Newark congestion Sunday, December 9, 2007 By RICHARD NEWMAN STAFF WRITER A photo of the interior of Continental's Q400 aircraft. Photo courtesy of Continental Airlines. Say the word "turboprop" to a frequent flier and it will probably evoke images of noisy, bumpy flights in cramped cabins with maybe a dozen other passengers. Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc. is out to change that with a new breed of bigger and quieter turboprop plane that will soon be making short hauls for Continental Airlines Inc. out of Newark Liberty International Airport: the 74-passenger Q400. The gas-turbine and propeller-driven Q400, touted by its manufacturer as the largest turboprop passenger plane in production, borrows technology used in nuclear submarines to suppress noise and offset in-flight shaking. The "Q" in Q400 stands for "quiet." It cruises at a speedy 415 mph, making short hauls a snap. "We like to say, like the old Oldsmobile slogan, it's not your father's turboprop," said Dan Russo, spokesman for Alaska Airlines' regional affiliate Horizon Airlines. That carrier has 33 Q400s in its fleet, more than any U.S. carrier. "It's really a different experience," he said. But Continental executives say the 15 Q400s they plan to introduce at Newark next year, replacing 50-seat regional jets, will bring another important benefit. Because of the Q400's larger seating capacity and shorter runway requirements, it will help ease congestion at an airport that is among the worst in terms of on-time flights. Continental and other U.S. airlines are under intense pressure from lawmakers and aviation regulators to alleviate chronic bottlenecks and delays at the New York-area airports. Regional jets, which have proliferated in recent years -- often replacing turboprops -- are a big part of the problem, as they require as much runway space as larger jets but carry fewer passengers. The Q400 has been around for nearly eight years, and the first to fly out of Newark is expected to arrive in the third week of January, subject to regulatory approval. The rest of the fleet will likely arrive by early summer. The aircraft, which has a list price of $25 million, will fly to as-yet-undetermined cities within 500 miles of Newark, under the Continental Connections banner. Houston-based Continental has hired Colgan Air Inc., a subsidiary of regional carrier Pinnacle Airways Corp. of Memphis, Tenn., to operate the flights. The Q400s will be able to use Newark's short east-west runway -- known as Runway 11/29 -- when wind conditions would force regional jets to use the busy main runways. The turboprop "can operate on Newark's shorter crosswind runway in more weather conditions, thus reducing aircraft requirements on Newark's longer runways," Continental Senior Vice President Zane Rowe told the Senate Commerce Committee in a September hearing on airport congestion and delays. Easing congestion The introduction of the Q400 is one of about a dozen steps Continental is taking to reduce congestion at Newark, Rowe said. The Q400 carries 24 more passengers than the 50-seat regional jets that account for most of the short-haul Continental Express fleet. They will cruise at about 25,000 feet, well below the jet traffic lanes. Marc Lavorgna, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said substituting larger planes for smaller ones will provide a measure of relief for overcrowded ramps and runways. "We are encouraging the use of larger planes throughout the system," he said. "The Q400 can fly out of the main traffic patterns," and "will have an impact" on congestion and delay problems at Newark, said Ray Neidl, airline analyst with New York-based Calyon Securities. "It's going to generate additional capacity at Newark," said Barry MacKinnon, a regional vice president at Bombardier. But how much additional runway capacity will be created by the swapping of Q400s for ERJ-145s is unclear and will ultimately be determined by the weather and the decisions made by air traffic controllers. Effect questioned Some aviators are skeptical. Continental will still have plenty of regional jets flying out of Newark, and these generally will not land on the short runway when there is a tail wind. In 2006, about 38 percent of Newark's 363,555 domestic flights used regional jets. "On balance, it's probably not going to have much of an effect at all," said small plane pilot Bill Leavens, a member of the New Jersey Aviation Association and a former president of the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Coalition. In these days of cutthroat competition in the airline business, cost efficiency is a big reason why airlines such as Horizon, Continental and Denver-based Frontier Airlines are bullish on the Q400. Seat for seat, an airline can expect fuel savings of 30 percent to 40 percent on the turboprop compared with the regional jet, according to Bombardier. "We can move the 74 seats for the same cost as the 50-seater," Philip Trenary, Pinnacle's chief executive officer told investors in a recent conference call. Continental declined to say how much it will save by swapping turboprops for regional jets, which are operated by ExpressJet Holdings Inc. Bombardier has 164 Q400s in service worldwide in more than 20 airline fleets. But the aircraft's safety record was blemished by a series of non-fatal crash landings this year in Europe, all involving Q400s operated by Scandinavian Airlines. The three crash landings were attributed to landing-gear problems on planes with lots of miles on them. Operators in September grounded about 60 Q400s that had made 10,000 or more flights for inspections, as directed by the manufacturer. Most of the aircraft were back in service within two weeks, said John Arnone, spokesman for Bombardier Regional Aircraft, a division of Bombardier. Only Scandinavian Airlines' Q400s are still out of service. Continental said investigations into the accidents bear watching, but the carrier expects to move ahead with plans to start using the Q400 at its Newark hub. "The landing-gear problems impacted Q400 aircraft at one specific operator," Continental spokesman David Messing wrote in an e-mail response to questions. "We are monitoring the situation, but we are confident in the responsive actions taken by Bombardier," he wrote, noting that the Continental Connection planes will be new. "We expect the Q400 to perform optimally in markets of one- to two-hour flight times," he wrote. Frontier Airlines is moving ahead with plans to put six new Q400s into service this month through its Lynx Aviation subsidiary. Travel agent Lance Liebowitz, president of Kea World Travel in Closter, wonders how leisure travelers in New Jersey will take to the Q400. Frequent-flier business travelers rarely complain when booked to fly on turboprop planes, but leisure travelers often do because they feel safer on jets, he said. "As soon as you say turboprop they are going to say, 'Is it safe?' " he said. E-mail: newman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * A bigger, quieter option A comparison of Continental's regional jets and its Q400 aircraft. ERJ-145 Q400 Seats 50 74 Range (miles) 1,783 1,757 Cruise speed (miles per hour) 530 415 Cruise altitude (feet) 35,000 25,000 Minimum runway length -- takeoff (feet) 7,448 4,580 Minimum runway length -- landing (feet) 4,593 4,221 Source: Continental Airlines 7230933 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". 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