Originally Posted by
What
Delta might like E175s but ordered 40 CRJs with option for 30 more. Money talks, they were able to get a better deal and way to unload the CRJ200s so they went with CRJs, if they loved the Ejets so much they would have just gotten Ejets. It's all based on economics, there are what 130 to 150 Ejets running around to hundreds of CRJ 7 and 9s. Fuel prices just increased, the CRJ just widened it's margin over the Ejets. Mainline would love to put passages on an airplane that is just like a mainline airplane by the looks, feel and operation but the bottom line is what counts the most and thus why they pick the CRJ. There is more than looking like a mainline aircraft when the airlines pick an airframe.
I'm not familiar with the fuel burn rate of the CRJ900 or E175, so I won't comment on that. But I'm not certain that Delta ordered the CRJ900 over the E175 simply because it's cheaper to operate. Keep in mind that Delta is trading in hundreds of CRJ100/200s for 40-70 CRJ900s. Also, 9e already operated the CRJ900. So it was an easy placement of deliveries because the training program, manuals, etc already existed.