Originally Posted by
Bzzt
It's not only the pilot costs, there are many economic factors that make it cheaper for mainlines to outsource flying. Outsourced flying does not cost the mainline anything for MX, fuel, labor costs, aircraft costs, etc. Also there is less liability for the mainline carrier on the outsourced route. It sucks but thats business in the US today.
I thought (am I wrong?) that in many cases, the mainline takes care of fuel and MX, leaving the regionals to basically provide pilots and FAs.
As for liability...with the Colgan 3407 crash and that other bird that departed the wrong runway at dawn in Kentucky or somewhere, did the major carrier not get named in the resulting lawsuits? Or was it just Colgan?