I'm sure its still an expensive seat compared to even an 88/90 and especially a bus or 73N. I agree there is some level of a market for them, and the same goes for 50 seaters as well. We might only need a few dozen 50 seaters, but I doubt we will ever have zero in our "network" other than to say that one day they may or may not have props on them.

At this point though it appears we are flying so many of these things just because we have them and just because we allow them to be outsourced. If we allowed 707's to be outsourced I wouldn't be suprised to see the company do so. We have wasted many, many billions on bad management decisions regarding RJ's and outsourcing. They can cry us a river if they want to but whatever 51+ seat flying they say they need needs to be flown by us in very short order. The number of 50's needs to be capped at present numbers and serial number limited, and that cap needs to be reduced as airframes are parked. Anything new is flown by us as well, even in that seat range. 3.b.6 is gone, so we will have to come up with a workable pay scale so the company's cries of not being able to make it if we can't hire the next J.O. to trash the operation can and will fall on deaf ears both within the pilot group as well as the NMB.