Quote:
Originally Posted by JetMonkey
One of the more famous stories about this was back in 97 when the CAL pilots just finished negotiating their new contract. The agreement called for nothing more than 50 seats for a jet could be flown by a regional for their hub feed. They thought putting a 50 seat limit was strong enough language. What they didn't realize was there was no limit of jet aircraft on that agreement. The ink wasn't even dry on that new contract when Continental turned around and placed an order with Embraer for a whopping 275 regional jets (nothing larger than 50 seats of course). The CAL pilot negotiators said, "Gosh, we didn't think they were gonna order that many".
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With the advent of the RJ came a new way to conduct business. Not unlike the ability to perform a new job with the introduction of a new tool in the toolbox, airlines too have capitalized on the opportunity to utilize RJ's in their business plans.
In years past, an airline could open up a market with turboprops and eventually replace that flying with mainline jet aircraft once the demand was large enough to produce a profit. Now, an airline has more flexibility because it can open a market with a small jet and increase or decrease capacity at will simply by adding or removing small jets. Not good news for mainline routes, but it does give management more flexibility with less risk.