rickair777,

Agreed and the FAA has no standard for certifying the AI F/O. Is the standard 10E-9 or something closer to the standard for live pilots. There will always be one pilot.

If there is any present risk, it’s a large upgauging of many routes and cancellation in secondary markets to address pilot shortages. This will come about when shortages of qualified crews or expense of crews drives economic decisions. Over at airliners.net, posters salivate over opening up New Haven, CT. Thise cities are more likely to lose service than gain it. NYC-Chicago has dozens of flights daily, start putting B777 or a new MoM equipment on the busy periods and carriers can reduce the number of crews, if not the cost. There are routes where frequency has reached an end. I somehow doubt, ten or twenty years from now carriers will be employing many more, likely fewer, crews.

It’s all happpy now, after a long expansion and coming retirements, this combination has played out before, true, at a smaller magnitude.

GF