Cape Air is a very small niche outfit operating on a few non-competitive routes. It's irrelevant to compare a C402 prop outfit to a regional jet carrier. In fact it's really incorrect to call some outfits like American Eagle "Regionals." They are major airlines in their own rights and with their low-pay compensation to employees, competing, in many ways, directly with their mainlines.

The fact is that the 50 seat jet has never been economically viable without being subsidized by a mainline carrier. If fuel spikes again, they're really scrap aluminum then. Now what the execs are doing is to continue to "redefine" what a "regional" jet is, and specifically want to condition pilots to believe that a 76-100 seat airplane flying halfway across the U.S. is a "regional" jet. Of course that is a lie, but such is the ethics of business executives. It's an exercise in perception management and desensitization that some regional pilots are eager to buy. So in the end, mainlines are subsidizing their low-pay carriers, making them look profitable, and at the same time generating losses that make for an excuse to drive down mainline compensation towards low-pay carrier standards. It really is a brilliant strategy.