Okay, go back and look at the chart. The segment for fuel CASM for the Skywest CRJ-900 is 0.0. So either Skywest has invented a plane that runs on air, or those are part of the pass through costs that aren't shown on that graph. The chart says that indirect costs don't include aircraft ownership fuel + oil and engine maintenance. So sure, if Skywest gets their airplanes for free and they run on air and the engines fix themselves then sure you have an accurate CASM. Well except for much of the labor costs are pass through costs also. So they get their airplanes for free, they run on air, the engines fix themselves, and their employees all work for nothing, then yes that is an accurate CASM. Well, there's more, do I need to go on or is that enough?

You can do your own research but it has to be based on fact. Instead, you guys latch onto anything you can find on the internet and say you have proven your point.

I am not the one fudging the numbers, but hey if you think lying is making your point then keep on. Here is a point to consider. If management is fudging their numbers wouldn't they want to show how low the costs of the 76 seaters are? Why would they lie on the high side?

So I admire your dedication to obfuscation and misleading everyone to try to make your point, but in the end truth always wins.

So for everyone else, here is the truth. There is only one mainline airplane that is close to the higher CASM's of RJ's and that is the DC-9. That should not be a surprise to anyone. The 737-800 is massively cheap to operate on a seat mile basis and beats all RJ's by huge proportions.

There is another metric and that is called trip costs. If you took an RJ-76 off side by side with a 737-800 or an MD-88 and then landed side by side an hour later, the total cost to operate that flight would be more on a mainline aircraft than on the RJ. Bigger jets burn more fuel, cost more to own, pilots make more money, flight attendants make more money, and on and on. The bigger airplanes have many more seats, so they are cheaper to operate on a seat mile basis.

So on a segment basis, they try to analyze whether the revenue gained with a larger jet justifies the higher trip costs associated with a larger jet. Unlike a carrier like Southwest or JetBlue, Delta covers a much wider array of markets to smaller cities and to smaller hubs. That is why Delta has to have different sized aircraft and can't operate with one fleet type like Southwest.

When Delta merged with Northwest, they both had fleets for medium sized airlines and served a much more fragmented industry. Now Delta is a mega carrier and the industry is much less fragmented. It makes much more sense for them to upgauge their fleet. The primary focus of this upgauging is to add more mainline aircraft. In fact the fleet plan envisions a net gain of around 100 aircraft at mainline while regionals lose 150.

They can't execute that plan unless they are able to take RJ-50's out of the market. They have signed agreements to operate those aircraft and they have ownership costs that they cannot unilaterally break. Yes, management made bad decisions back when they were independent carriers, but if they want to fix those issues and add mainline flying why should we say no?

So they need an incentive (bribe) to the DCI carriers and to the debt holders to break these agreements. The DCI carriers will cooperate if they can get some other type of flying (76 seaters) and the debt holders will cooperate if they can get additional jet orders since they view this as a jobs program for their country.

So in order to help the company execute their plan to massively increase mainline flying, we entered into this negotiation. Part of that negotiation was to transfer a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on third parties into our pockets. So if you are scared of change and want to live in the little world you inhabit now, then please crawl back in your shell. If you see the entrepreneurial nature of this deal and what it will mean to Delta pilot careers then jump on board. As part of this negotiation we told management that we were going to hold them to their business plan. That is the block hour ratio and the 50 seat reduction tables. It is extremely powerful protection for Delta pilots and it is ground breaking. It's too bad some try to mislead others by publishing spreadsheets with no logic or reasoning. I could show you in a spreadsheet how a 600 seat A-380 could replace 12 RJ-50's, but does that make one bit of sense to anyone? Some try to sell you the notion that Delta will have 300 180+ seat aircraft and get rid of almost every jet smaller than that. Does that make sense to you?

So, Dear Reader, I will let you judge the logic and reasoning of what I wrote and then the logic and reasoning that a SkyWest RJ-76 burns no fuel, came free from the manufacturer, and the engines fix themselves.