Good point, Cassin..and I think I read in AW&S that the Japanese project manager for the MRJ plans to do exactly that and certify the MTOW to allow those jets to fit DL scope. Fortunately, he let the cat out of the bag and we'll be watching very closely regarding any potential pencil-whipping.

But even if they do lower the MTOW, they still count toward the total 223 76-seat hulls permitted to fly for DCI. Even if some of them replace older CRJ 900's, with our block-hour ratio's and hard caps, they won't replace mainline flyng that is already in place. In fact, as we grow in SEA, our RJ flying will have to be replaced by mainline because they've hit the wall and will run out of RJ's permitted to fly in DL colors.

We're talking about 100 E-175E2's with options for 100 more and 100 MRJ's with another 100 options. That's 400 big RJ's looking for a home. I'm pretty sure SKW thought the AA/DL/UA would get scope relief..so far they have been unsuccessful, and DL's scope has become more restrictive. I don't know about the specifics regarding AA/UA, but I think their scope clauses are pretty close to ours..so where are 400 overweight RJ's gonna go?

I'm afraid that mainline AS pilots don't have those same protections, and the path of least resistance will lead them up to AK.

Jmho..