Originally Posted by
Rotor2prop
Guys I hate to rain on the warm fuzzies but regional flying is growing not shrinking! The only thing that is shrinking is the number of pilots and aircraft.
Take DCI, yes they are shrinking the fleet of regional aircraft but there is an increase in total regional lift seats. That equals growth! Delta sells seats not airplanes so....
There is a nice write up on it over at JC in the airline section.
I guess I should also say that once you take into account the 717 seats at mainline the regionals are not really "growing" but they are not shrinking by any means.
R2P,
As was already pointed out DCI seats are actually decreasing, not increasing. But remember, Pilot jobs correlate directly with air-frames not with seats so airframes is still a very important metric no matter how you look at it.
Another important metric that you allude to is passengers (seats). When we signed this TA DCI was flying about 45% of our domestic passengers. When the 717s are up and running and the 50 seaters are reduced DCI will be flying about 35% of our domestic passengers.
To me that 45% down to 35% is the most important metric.
Scoop