Originally Posted by
WhyIFly
If the regionals didn't sink to the current hiring qualifications that they are showing now, at least one would have collapsed already. People are getting hired that are of absolutely terrible quality and should never be airline pilots in the first place, so that is helping things limp along a bit longer than they really should.
Even with this, and the E3's, we should have at least one collapse by the end of the year. I am guessing consolidation is the key going forward at the regional levels.
For the legacy carriers, watch code share agreements replace the regionals. AA is the first to really test this with the agreement with JetBlue. JetBlue is becoming the ULCC regional for AA. As it grows, JetBlue will take over the regional type flying with airbuses and AA mainline will do the mainline flying.
For all of those that said that JetBlue wasn't a ULCC, you do realize now that I was foreshadowing JetBlue buying Spirit, right? I was tipping the cards a little to let you know that this was coming.
JetBlue could have been a real contender in the industry, but sank to the bottom with this Spirit purchase offer.