Officially confirmed by management today in an email to employees that we will be receiving these two airplanes. An announcement on more growth later this summer.
My personal opinion is this:
G7 flying is moving to 9E in some form or another. Management is still trying to figure out the best way to do it. These two airplanes are a trial, they'll send them through conformity and see how much they cost/how they behave afterwards.
Plan A) If it goes OK, they'll bring the rest (the other 20 airplanes)
Plan B) If it goes poorly (over budget, poor reliability) they'll figure out other options, possibly new 70-seat CRJ-900(SC)s.
In any case, three 700s really aren't enough. When one or more of them misbehave the operation suffers tremendously. The EYW market is pretty important, and five airplanes would be a more manageable number to absorb the issues.
I've heard that the G7 700s really aren't that bad. Not as bad as the ones we already have, FWIW.
Educated speculation. Only time will tell.
