Originally Posted by
sailingfun
All 88 are growth aircraft to the mainline. If the economy collapses and the company plans a large decrease in overall capacity then we will see fewer pilots jobs. Regardless of the economy however we will have 88 more airframes at the mainline. How anyone can believe that is a bad thing utterly eludes me. The key to the 717's is they are not a increase in capacity but a shift in flying from DCI to the mainline. That is far more viable long term flying then planned future fleet increases given the economic situation. No matter how the economy plays out the 717's are a huge boost to the mainline.
I guess for some the glass is half full, for others its half empty, for many APC posters its cracking and leaking.
The company said it's going to be capacity neutral, right? The 717s would have been pretty close to an even swap with the 50 seaters. Lets not forget that we let them backfill more than half the lost RJ capacity with more RJs. There's about 3,000 seats left over.
70(76) + (88)110 is not equal to 200(50) + 17(120)
I would not be surprised if a few mainline jets were retired to make up the difference. For example, if you take out the 22 MD88s that did not get the gross weight increase, now we're pretty close to capacity neutral.