Originally Posted by
chrisreedrules
I think the trend looking out over the next 5-10 years will be less and less regional flights as the market for pilots to fly the rj’s tightens further. It’s already starting to get, “interesting”. More mainline flying is good for all of us long term.
The willingness of Airbus to buy into Bombardier and the desire of Boeing to buy into Embraer suggests to me where they think this is going. Bigger, more capable, but more fuel efficient per seat mike "RJs such as the C-series and E-2s are going to be flown in the niche where they make the best economic sense, either by mainline as their low end equipment or by independent "regionals" who will not be bound by scope clauses to the big four.
One could envision a medium-sized city network (perhaps Jeff Bezos will create Amazon Prime Air?) with tickets sold exclusively online and no real codeshare obligations at all. Look what LYFT and UBER have already done to mass transit and taxi services. The future is going to see bigger changes than we would believe. I mean, who would have imagined five years ago that the regionals would be competing with higher pay and hiring and retention bonuses for a diminishing number of nominally qualified newbie FO applicants?