Originally Posted by
rickair7777
They're not great at saving money, what they do is provide frequency which is important to the kind of habitual flyers we have in the US market. If operated by mainline, they would mostly lose money.
In the past operating RJ's at a loss was accepted and justified as feed for mainline hubs. Lately majors prefer that almost all of their flying turn a profit, but the pendulum could swing back.
What does making money really mean? Regional feed is supporting the connecting flights. How much revenue you allocate to the regional feed is a pure accounting exercise.
Hence, majors really view it more as a cost factor that needs to be minimized.