Originally Posted by
chrisreedrules
Thank you for the insight. My main concern is that as the regional pilot shortage deepens, flying will eventually be brought back to mainline while the regionals retract. Exactly how/when that happens I’m not too sure. But eventually the amount of money that AAG has to throw at the regionals to staff the flying won’t make sense. And when that happens I would not be surprised to see an SNB or large regional (G1) aircraft order.
That's just it...sooo much more is tied to those RJs than just pilot wages. AA doesn't want many more airplanes at mainline...bigger yes...more no.
During the state of the airline Isom said it best...the contracted deicers at DFW do a better job for cheaper than the unionized workers. They like to outsource. It keeps wages in check and they can shop around for a better deal.
Pre-merger AA had almost 400, 140 seat S80's.
We grew ASMs just by replacing S80's with 737's, and by up-gauging the 160 seat 737s with 172 seats. That alone added ~25 airplanes worth of seats right there.
Our 100 new 321NEOs add 5% capacity increase over the older 321s.
We have 48 320's nearing retirement...what will they be replaced with? Either 172 seat 737's or 196 seat 321's.
There will also be a slowdown or hiccup in the economy sometime...the RJs will be staffed at contractors. We have 600(!) of them. Thinking they will be at mainline is a pipe dream.