Originally Posted by
KirillTheThrill
Those Sim slots would not become available. My reference is this, years ago Mesa was working on a 170-190 cert so they could fly UA 175 birds. SkyWest management bought out every 170-190 sim available to make JO’s operation more expensive. They had Mesa flying crews to Paris, it won’t be a simple as you say.
If legacies (not just United) we’re to start taking back more flying and operate 175’s, SkyWest wouldn’t want those sim slots to sit vacant as internal demand diminished and would then make them available for lease. This is all just fantasy speculation since the legacies are not likely to take 175’s in house. UAX will keep all of the 175’s where they are and therefore utilize the training slots with UAX pilots. I think that the most likely scenario is that the regionals have all of the 70/76 seat aircraft that they will ever have and that they will simply shrink as the 50 seat fleet is phased out. UAX for instance would consist of 175’s and 550’s, while UAL covers everything else. Larger, more efficient, and comfortable aircraft with reduced frequency serving the most lucrative markets seems to be where the market and Kirby are taking us.