Originally Posted by David Puddy

I agree with you. However, didn't the Alaska pilots consider this in their last contract? Clearly it wasn't so critical to them since they left scope out of their agreement. "Should be" is legally protected in all other legacy contracts but Alaska's.

No scope protection sounded crazy to me when the Alaska TA passed, but now Alaska's management has a lot more flexibility when considering new aircraft types... That's the situation at Alaska/Horizon today and that's why I think aircraft like the C-Series might be considered. No scope = max flexibility.

From a management perspective, why order E175s that fit with current "legacy scope rules" at other airlines when you can order slightly bigger and better performing aircraft like the CS100 from one of your best partners before the scope window eventually closes in the next contract? With Delta adding older, discarded E190s from Air Canada in SEA, why add more similar and scope-appropriate Embraers to the mix when one of your most important partners (Bombardier) is likely ready to do a deal?

It could just be me, but when I read the announcement, I found the words "large RJs" to be a bit interesting. Nobody assumes they will be ordering E135s or CRJ-200s. Everyone already assumes something like an E175 or CR9. But the fact that no scope rules apply in this case, something like the CS100 is at least possible. Time will tell...