Originally Posted by
tom11011
It's more likely that Delta will be the first to begin bringing regional flying back in house, likely to start this year.
American on the other hand is not there yet. American's main concern is to keep regionals flying longer by consolidating the regional fleet. But in order for this to happen it is imperative that all the regional pilot groups allow 12/4.
Delta has already done that. Almost all of Concourse C in ATL is mainline now, used to be all ASA. 717s and 88s fly to every city ASA used to serve exclusively, even cities that were served by 50 seaters and turboprops.
The problem is, DAL is going to hit a wall when they realize they can't fill 3 717s or 88s a day in every one of these cities all year. Nothing smaller than a CRJ 900 or E190 will EVER be flown at mainline. Ever. So they are always going to need some CPA feed. When they finally drive the regionals out of business, and the domestic feed collapses, you will see them contracting out to startup turboprop and small jet operators to recover the feed. Like they did in the early 90s after the collapse of the 80s model of DC-9s doing <500 mile flights. What's old is new again.