Unfortunately yes .The contract is up in a year and a half and Ua basically said we’re not renewing it with these aircraft. Now a lot can happen in that time , but all of the majors are scoped out on larger rjs. The saving grace would be if they could buy some old 700s and convert them to 550s . However, many of you may not know but Skywest is buying up all they can find and preparing to convert them. The problem is they are having a very hard time finding any , including overseas.So from that perspective it dosent look good.
Kirby said in his last announcement that 50 seat single class departures will be reduced to 10% of daily departures by 2023.As their new jets begin to come on line , they will begin a massive overhaul and realignment of their ac usage to phase out and I quote Kirby “ the small, unpopular 50 seat planes that our customers don’t enjoy flying on “ unquote .
All I’m saying is , you better start working on a plan B just in case they can’t come up with one. Maybe the freight thing will work ,but you best believe the schedules will be crappy and a lot of night flying and backside of the clock involved with that .