Originally Posted by tallpilot

Marketing issues aside (which are not insignificant), dispatch reliability is an issue. However it is possible a brand new turboprop could have higher dispatch reliability than the 20+ year old 50 seat jet it replaces. It might also have RNP capability that allows it to operate in lower weather at non-CAT-II+ airfields than the 1990s avionics in the current 50 seat jets.

Many issues to consider here. In any case, the current 50 seat jets won't last forever. The manufactures insist they only exist because of U.S. airline scope restrictions and don't exist anywhere else on the planet (that seems absurd, but I am not an airline industry economist) but they certainly exist in abundance here and will need to be replaced sometime in the future.



Great point. However this issue has been easily dealt with on business jets with vapor cycle air conditioning systems. Modern variable speed compressors are extremely efficient and not particularly heavy. So this is not an insurmountable engineering problem.