It's comical that the Kool-Aide crowd likes to claim C2012 was responsible for the B717s. Fact: C2012 had ZERO relevance on the acquisition of the B717. This management team wasn't going to pass up the steal of a lifetime in this airframe. C2012 had nothing to do with it. Ed said they were eyeing the 717 the day SWA showed interest in Airtran.

What C2012 did was:
- breath life in an ailing regional model. The CRJ200s are dying. The 76 seaters provided an economic replacement keeping the regional industry a viable model.

- change our summer months from 31 days to 30 days allowing the company to reduce headcount (3% is a reasonable estimate) by requiring approximately 3% less pilots in the summer months. Hiring would have been FAR greater absent this concession.