Originally Posted by
Flex81
An RJ is not profitable at the current price/barrel of oil. 50 seats are profitable up to around $50/ barrel; 70 seaters are profitable up to $70/ barrel; and 130 seaters are profitable up to $130/ barrel. This of course is with the current ticket prices and nearly full aircraft. Any aircraft with less than 120-130 seats and has jet engines is not profitable from A to B (right now) even with full loads. RJ's will still have their place in some markets, but I would expect to see a lot of capacity dropped on the regional side. Why united didn't start with the regionals is beyond me.
UAL, as stupid as they can appear to be, still knows more about their business than YOU do...
Neither RJ or 737 is profitable under current conditions.
If you have less than 100 pax, a 737 probably cannot be profitable without massive fare increases.
If you fill up an RJ, AND raise fares sufficiently the RJ might be profitable.
This assumes that they will replace each 737 with only one, or possibly two RJ's.
A 150-seat 737 will be more economical than three 50-seat RJ's under any circumstances. But if you have fewer than 150 pax, then RJ's start to look better.
Nothing is going to work with much less than 50 pax, unless it has propellors.