Karnage
I-am-a-pirate. I do not need credentials!
Delta can not just cut 190+ airplanes, even in one year. It took the better part of a decade to slowly dismantle Comair. Even with effort there was just too much lift to pull in just one year.
Just for clarity, in the last 4 years, Jan 2010 to Jan 2014, Delta Connection has shrunk by 162 planes.
The break down is:
CR2: -161
CR7: +16
CR9: +12
E70: +17
E75: No change
ER4: -5
SF3: -41
In that time the biggest single year drop occured betwen Jan 2012 and Jan 2013 when 56 planes left the DCI fleet, with 63 CRJ-200s departing, one Embraer 170 and 6 ERJ-145s being brought in to the fleet. Based on an assumed max of 60 retirements per year (I'm too tied to look up the delivery schedule for the last CRJ-900s which could accelerate that), Delta could drop the 50 seaters in the following time table (not all at once though given the fact that in the 2010 to 2013 period Delta's mainline fleet didn't grow and the incoming 717s could add to the number of 50 seaters going to the junkers):
Chatauqua: 1 year (41 ERJ-145s)
ExpressJet: 1 year (62 CRJ-200s)
Endeavor: 2 years (117 CRJ-200s)
SkyWest: 1 year (41 CRJ-200s)
* All based on Jan 1, 2014 data, it should be noted that SkyWest is already ditching 50 seaters in a swap for more CRJ-700s and -900s that started last year.