Originally Posted by ToiletDuck

Actually the regional industry is expected to shrink over the next several years with more flights going to mainline. Retirements are also expected to increase as the baby boomers make their moves. They might have to stay longer than 3yrs but big deal. Currently we are out of the norm with the speed up upgrades/hires. This time extending a little would be things returning back to normal.

Originally Posted by American Airlines 2006 Annual Report

American's mainline capacity for the full year 2007 is expected to decrease approximately one percent from 2006 with more than a one percent reduction in domestic capacity and less than a one percent decrease in international capacity.

Originally Posted by Delta Airlines 2006 Annual Report

Key iniaitives accomplished by the end of 2006 in the area of revenue and network productivity include:

Originally Posted by Northwest Airlines 2006 Annual Report

Right Sizing and re-optimizing its fleet and reducing systemwide capacity by approximately 10% during the first year in bankruptcy (as measured by the 12 months ending September 30, 2006) and my removing a number of mainline and regional aircraft from the Northwest fleet. For the full year 2006, NWA reduced its systemwide consolidated available seat miles by 7.5%.

Originally Posted by US Airways/America West 2006 Annual Report

(AWA) mainline capacity, as measured by ASM's, decreased 3.1%.
...Express RPMs increased 7.8% as express capacity, as measured by ASMs, increased 2.7%, resulting in a 3.6 point increase in load factor to 75.5%.
(US Airways) mainline capacity, as measured by ASMs, decreased 7.9%.
Express RPMs increased by 6.6% as Express capacity, as measured by ASMs, decreased 1.7%, resulting in a 5.4 point increase in load factor to 69.4%.