Originally Posted by
CBreezy
Fact: 50 seat aircraft will be around for at least another decade. They most definitely won't be in the large numbers we see now, but they will continue to be profitable.
Never said they wouldn't be around for a while, but a decade may be a stretch. What I do know is my contract, which in 2016 will restrict UAL management to outsourcing only 450 airplanes with a max of 325 70/76 airplanes. In addition, they will also need to add a NEW small-narrowbody to the mainline fleet and the block hour percentage for UAX is ultimately reduced to a percentage in the high 60's. And that's off narrow body block hours only!
With tight block hour restrictions I bet we see more 50 seaters parked in order to max the block hours out on the 70/76 seater. I also suspect we'll see E190/CS300 type aircraft flown by mainline on some of these routes currently flown by the 70/76 seat aircraft.
Originally Posted by
CBreezy
Fact: Anyone who uses 50-seaters as a long term plan is not a smart person. That being said, the people who run airlines, while disliked, are not dumb...especially if they survived 2001-2008. You can sit here and pretend to know what "the industry" is doing, but in reality, you have no clue. Neither do I. No one really knows what discussions people are having behind closed doors in Chicago or Dallas. Especially at a private company. If I owned an airline though? I wouldn't be setting myself to lose everything.
The above in bold is such a true statement.