Originally Posted by
Larry in TN
I'm not convinced that they'd operate the 175-sized airplane at mainline. It wouldn't cost that much more to do the 195/CS100-sized airplane and that would have lower CASM.
The problem is our management is looking to solve a "today" problem, but we are going to have these jets for 30 years possibly. There is no reason not to just buy a 100 seat jet, and fly it to markets where they might only fill 76 seats now, but they will grow into 100 seat markets in the future, or shift to markets where it makes sense.
The smallest plane we fly right now is the 737-700 which has between 118-126 seats depending on configuration. We have a big hole in our plane capacity from 76-118, which is a lot of small and medium cities. A 90-100 seat jet would go a long way to filling that hole. Its a strategy thats working for Delta right now.
Our management is SO short-sighted it is amazing.