They could only operate them at the mainline if its on a cost competitive basis. We once again attempted to show that it could be done. We could not produce numbers even close. Thats the fallacy of the operate at the mainline concept. Unless you cost competitive you lose the flying completely and lose the existing mainline flying the feed generated.
This was a bit of a surprise to me since I felt we could be competitive on a 76 seater. It did not turn out to be the case. If it was the case then most managements would operate the aircraft at their mainline fleets. It would be a win win so to speak. Instead after looking at the numbers management teams fight almost to the death to keep the flying at lower cost providers. There is a reason.