Originally Posted by
Itsajob
You’re right, it is an odd question. I don’t pretend to know what is going to, or what should happen. I just find some people’s ideas/speculations interesting, and others entertaining. The reason that I asked is that this is a pivotal moment for the industry. After 9/11 we relaxed scope, the industry ran with it, and we still haven’t recovered. Hopefully this time we have learned a lesson and don’t repeat hard learned lessons. We will be parking some planes, some will come out of storage, others may not. I still wonder about the regional side of the house. Will those tired old 50 seaters find renewed purpose, or will they be parked? If we hold the line on scope, will we look the same coming out of this, or could bringing 100 seat jets to United now make sense? Clueless speculation is what APC is based on, why not enjoy it?
Let me just toss this into the mix...
With the company now offering 50 hour SRL lines, the cost of operating 737s and 319/320s just got cheaper and may be cheaper to operate than RJs. In order to operate those additional flights as mainline, it will now cost the company 73 hrs for pilots to fly it vs 50 hrs for pilots to do nothing. That means the marginal additional mainline pilots cost 31% of what they used to.
You can bet that Scott Kirby is calculating the cost comparison using various formulae.
I wouldn't be surprised to see United shed some RJ contracts soon, whether or not they opt to use mainline aircraft on RJ routes.