Originally Posted by
Ace66
Maybe these higher rates work - how much of the cost pie is pilot labor? If pilot labor doubles but is only 5% of the total cost....
It may still be cheaper to put a 76 seater on a route with expensive regional pilots than a half empty -700 with the same paid pilots.
At this point, the only reason a mainline aircraft isn’t on every route is because there aren’t enough of them. I haven’t flown in an airplane in nearly a year that wasn’t full or close to it. There are obviously BFE exceptions out there that an RJ will be needed, but that seems to be vastly the exception to the rule at the moment.