Originally Posted by
pangolin
You are deluded. If it made financial sense it would have already happened. The current pilot shortage and associated increased costs at the regionals is making it closer but be realistic. United owns the planes. It pays the regional staffing companies to staff them. Why in the world would they bring that in house and pay 3-5 times the amount they presently pay?
Deluded is probably a little strong. I don’t see us flying 76 seat jets any time soon, but I can see a realistic situation where we end up with 100 seat jets, small 737’s, or 319’s and drastically shrink the regionals. Express flying a few 50 seaters and the 70 seaters that they already have with mainline flying the rest on 100+ seat jets would be a good product. It’s contract negotiating time now anyway. You can’t believe anything you hear until a contract is signed and aircraft are ordered.