Hi!

As someone else pointed out, TSA ordered MRJs, NOT Bombardier Cs. The MRJs are smaller. TSA has NO BRANDED FLYING (unlike Republic)...

There is a problem when we say "Don't call it an RJ...". That is how we got into this mess. We excluded certain planes because they were too small, weren't jets, etc., etc. If we had insisted that our pilots (whoever "our" was) fly all of our passengers, we would have had 19 seaters at UAL, and we would not have any regional airlines.

It seems that Code Shares are now being used to do the same thing as Regional Feed has been doing. The Airline Managers have been able to weasel around scope in this fashion. There are, of course, technical differences, but it essentially letting your passengers fly on other carriers, some of whom have smaller planes and/or smaller payrates, which threatens your jobs.

NWA was planning on buying the "C". I hope DAL does, to replace it's DC-9s and/or Airbuses or 737s. It is a very nice plane, with FANTASTIC engines (of course, we will see how it REALLY performs when it is placed in service). Airbus and Boeing are both looking at these P&W GTFs to re-engine their smaller planes.

If you study the MWA/AirTran/TPG/NWA threads, I believe that you will come to the conclusion that, basically, DAL bought MWA, and cooperated with Republic in its dismantling. I think that DAL has no problem with Republic "competing" against it and flying feed/code-share for them at the same time.

I hope the MWA/F9/Lynx guys get back in the cockpit ASAP!

cliff
NBO