Originally Posted by
Airsupport
i agree with most of what you say and i hope a lot of it is true. since we already have 76 planes on the regional tickets they are going to stay there. hopefully that is as high as the seats will go. and hopefully the dc9 replacement will be flown by main line pilots.
....my hope is that mainlines continue to grow so i will have somewhere to go in the future.
Airlines are growing, just not necessarily in the USA. I'm going to the job fair in ATL at the end of this month, which I believe will be largely international carriers.
I agree that 76 planes will stay with contract airlines, for the very reason they got there in the first place; it's cheaper.
That will put pressure on the number crunchers for a DC-9 replacement. The lure of contracting an airline to fly 100 seats for cheap compared to what they have to pay their own crews (and actually buy / lease and maintain new planes) won't go away.