Originally Posted by
TurboFan
Hahah. Seriously.
The line between what is regional and what is mainline is definitely becoming more and more indiscernible. Ask an Airways guy if he thinks the EMB-190 belongs on property and if your experience is anything compared to mine, he will tell you it's a regional jet being used by the airline to drive down their pay. I agree. I still see planes like the EMB-190, 195 and CRJ-1000 as regional airplanes meant for regional carriers. Although great airplanes, they just don't have the feel or performance that many "mainline" planes like the 737 have. Personally I see these new planes as a chance for regional pilots to make a stand and demand more pay. Personally I think one of the reasons our pay is so low is because companies have justified it by comparing our pay to the amount of passengers we carry - 50 passengers doesn't sound like that many so don't pay them very much. Now that that the line between mainline and regional is becoming blurred, maybe a regional will step up and pay their pilots respectably to fly this new breed of 100+ pax airplane. A smart regional would as I see these new airplanes as the birds of the future, coming into popularity as the inefficient CRJ-200's and ERJ-145's are phased out.
There are multiple flaws in your line of thinking. First off, the efficiency of an aircraft is directly affected by the price of fuel. Right now at the current market price, mainline carriers should see an increase on their margins associated with the 50 seaters. Second, a CRJ1000 is a DC-9 size aircraft, it's by all means and accounts a mainline aircraft even by our current standards (see JetBlue, USair, AirCanada, etc.).
The biggest problem with your mentality is that you actually think a regional is going to pay "good" rates to fly a mainline size aircraft....sadly it would defeat the point of it's existence, hence the contracting of cheaper flying to regionals.
What should happen, is the mainline carriers begin to take back all of the regional flying. You do understand that if these birds make it to the regionals, that will be less jobs at the majors don't you? Either you're very new to the industry and you got a bad case of SJS, or you want to be a lifer at your regional. Either way, you fall in the minority.