Originally Posted by
dovic91
United merely transferred those airplanes along with the old TSA birds that had previously transferred to XJT over to C5 because C5 is a LOT cheaper. And C5 is in the beginning stages of a huge ramp up to fly many, if not most of those airplanes. And Kirby's message was never that the 50 seat RJs were going away completely. He said "mostly" a thing of the past. When those statements were made, UAX carriers were flying almost 400 50 seat aircraft. What remains to be seen is what his definition of "mostly" is.
From what I understand, C5 is going to end up operating some of those planes, not all, and probably not even most. It isn’t just due to COVID that they were considering ways to dramatically shrink the 50 seaters. Several years ago in a company statement when they announced the 737-700’s that never happened, they said that the order would allow them to get down to around 100 of the 50 seaters. CommutAir may get some temporary growth, but it will most likely be short lived. My guess is that by 2025 the single class 50 seaters will be gone, and United will have 3 or 4 regionals flying the 175’s and 550’s.