Originally Posted by
JungleBus
Put another way, Bill...would you let them outsource 35 A320s in exchange for parking 200 50-seaters they wanted to get rid of anyways? Because that's precisely what this does. The modern jumbo-RJs are half an A320 with similar economics, range, and route structure. I've landed the E175 at 83 airports in 40 states and 5 provinces - so much for regional, eh? *Many* of the routes I fly are ex-A320.
No, I wouldn't let them fly anything over 76 seats. Neither would ALPA, as seen in the last day of negotiations (supposedly). Where will those 70 and 76 seaters go when 150 50 seaters are parked? Anyone? Will they just stop flying to half of the city pairs out there? No, they will cover those same cities with larger planes. Where would we fly 717s? On nonstop transcons from NY to LA? No. They will fly regional flights that current 76 seaters are flying, which in turn will cover 70 seaters covering the parked 50 seaters. Not hard to connect those dots.
As far as your E175 flying ex 320 routes, that has actually been swinging the other way as of late. A buddy on the small bus said he did a FAY layover recently, and also a Gulfport. Those were previous DCI routes that are slowly being changed back to mainline. Expect more of that with 717s coming.