Originally Posted by
galaxy flyer
I should have clearer, DL has lots of 70 seaters, poor sentence structure on my part. Still, the economic attraction of regional airlines, flying anything from 70 seats to, even 110 seats is going to be hard for airline managements to resist. There are several planes (E190, C-series, etc) on the drawing board which only make sense if they can be crewed at RJ wages, either they fail as designs, the mainline contracts carve out a pay rate for them or agree the mainline unions change the scope clauses.
As to "unions not budging", well I've been in this rodeo since before B-scale, they'll budge, take that to the bank. Here's an example, when I was working on my private, a local airline captain (UAL) bragged the job paid a "Cadilliac a month", which in 1968 was true. And Captains lived in Greenwich, CT or LaJolla, CA. Far from true today.
GF
That CA worked for an airline which participated in a regulated industry. The government controlled fares, & balancing costs was much easier. Those airlines dealt with not even half of the things today's management teams deal with. Apples to oranges.
Also, the C-Series can seat 130-150 people. Many Legacy/Major airlines operate that size aircraft profitably today. The C-Series does not only make sense if operated by a regional. Neither does the E190. JetBlue operates them for decent wages, & Delta has a pay rate for them as well.