Thank you for replying, and I will reply in kind.

First, I was an RJ driver, but not by choice. Only went to that class after the rug was pulled out post 9-11.

Second, CASM is great but if you have to reduce your price of tickets to fill up a jet, then the overall profit is about the same. CASM is as it states, per seat, and if you have a 100 seat jets that has a CASM equal to a 120 seat jet, the smaller jet is still cheaper to operate because there are less seats.

Third, airline marketing managers do a real poor job over time selling X amount of seats and letting the other ones go empty on routes where a 100 seat jet is the correct answer. We have seen some of this with the MD90. They are dumping seats at the last minute on the internet just to sell em. That breaks the whole model.

The C-Series is an expensive jet, but it will be a game changer. Bombardier needs a Legacy North American lunch customer. I truly believe that its lack of orders is two fold. One is the list price is high, but the larger reason is no Legacy wants to buy it and fly it at mainline and have another Legacy outsource it to the connection lift. As soon as one of these carriers puts their order in and commits to flying it at mainline, its order book will grow.

One of the benefits of this jets is it has a 100 and 130 seat variant. There is talk of a 150 seat variant too. CASM goes down as a jet is lengthened. The 318 and 319 are shorter versions of their original design and by virtue of that fact, have higher CASM's. The C-series is starting with a CASM that is equal to these jets, and as they lengthen it, that CASM will decrease.