Originally Posted by
Han Solo
I think the 50 seaters are dead but not the 76. Gaining ground on bottom-end scope is not a top priority of mine but I certainly don't want to go in the other direction and give the company more access to 76 seaters (not that you're suggesting that). Of course in a perfect pilot world we'd just get 2 A220s for every 3 76 seat RJ we've got and the era of regionals would fade into history.
At high density airports, a certain amount of slots are allocated to small aircraft by the FARs. To maintain those slots, mainline will have to operate a jet that has 55 seats or less. FAR 93.123 This is probably the main reason regional jets still exist at Delta.
Delta acquired that NY market share in a series of deals, the most recent being the slot swap. Those are worth billions to the company, they aren't going to give them up. Getting rid of 50 seat RJ's would cost them a ~40% reduction in market share. Not to mention the ability to cancel RJ slots during IROP for mainline schedule integrity.