Well, I was told during my initial training in Woodford, England by the manager of the Avro program, that the Avros were a stop-gap airplane. Comair had the -200 orders locked up and Express had the EMBs locked up. NWA wanted a regional jet and Avro had an idle plant. They got them at a steal, and due the scope restriction, NWA got a regional jet with first class. The rest is a bad case of SJS, both by the companies, and unfortunately the eager young pilots too.