JOEFRIDAY2
Well-Known Member
You can read this a number of ways.
The fact remains that American (like United and Delta) currently MUST have the regionals because they feed 50% of the passengers into mainline.
My good sense tells me that the CRJ-200 aircraft are going to first out of the fleet. The cost per revenue passenger mile on that aircraft is the highest in the industry. So you can expect that the new aircraft on order will replace those CRJ-200's.
The CRJ's that Air Wisconsin has are some of the first CRJ's made. They were originally United Express aircraft. They are pretty old aircraft. At some point, American will need to come to terms with Air Wisconsin one way or another. Until that time, Air Wisconsin is not going to commit for new aircraft. This will be a strong indicator of where all of this is going and this is something to keep an eye on.
I also expect, at some point, that mainline will start to pick up some of the routes that the regionals currently fly. The timing on this is going to depend on how difficult the regionals have hiring and keeping pilots. You can already see Delta planning for this with the addition of the 717's. American and United will also have to make a similar move.
I don't see the regionals growing at all. I believe the regionals will continue to shrink.as mainline keeps hiring their pilots.
Joe
The fact remains that American (like United and Delta) currently MUST have the regionals because they feed 50% of the passengers into mainline.
My good sense tells me that the CRJ-200 aircraft are going to first out of the fleet. The cost per revenue passenger mile on that aircraft is the highest in the industry. So you can expect that the new aircraft on order will replace those CRJ-200's.
The CRJ's that Air Wisconsin has are some of the first CRJ's made. They were originally United Express aircraft. They are pretty old aircraft. At some point, American will need to come to terms with Air Wisconsin one way or another. Until that time, Air Wisconsin is not going to commit for new aircraft. This will be a strong indicator of where all of this is going and this is something to keep an eye on.
I also expect, at some point, that mainline will start to pick up some of the routes that the regionals currently fly. The timing on this is going to depend on how difficult the regionals have hiring and keeping pilots. You can already see Delta planning for this with the addition of the 717's. American and United will also have to make a similar move.
I don't see the regionals growing at all. I believe the regionals will continue to shrink.as mainline keeps hiring their pilots.
Joe