Travelers want flexibility, especially business travelers. There are a lot routes that can’t be reduced or business will be lost. The 900 fills that position quite well.

It won’t be that drastic, take LGA-ROC, 5x a day on the 900, could cut 2 if the RJ frequencies, put a 221 on one of them, and you still get 4x a day and only 42 lost seats with a 40% reduction in RJ legs on just that pairing. Plenty of freq for business travelers, especially with it likely slower post-COVID environment. It’s not going to be a flip from all RJ to all mainline, but a shift and transition. Remember when LGA/JFK-DFW/IAH was all regional? Stuff like BOS-CVG, LGA-RDU were all RJ until last year.

Theres another what, 45 220s on order, plus a good 50 options, they’re going to fly somewhere…

Theyve been telling me that for a decade, while telling me business travel will naturally go down as technology gets better (all evidence to the contrary). Seems like companies like southwest wouldnt have grabbed so much of the business market share, but they did anyway. Delta's highest claims of the business traveler market have been during covid when they didnt travel. Frequency is a nebulous metric to hang your hat on.

The truth is the prices control the market. The travelers (business people surveyed who spend their bosses/owners money) have certain wants, but ultimately its a numbers question. Watching Boeing go to Delta even though alaskan spent the money and time on direct flights to and from CHS from SEA are a good example of this phenomenon.

The business travel goes down to any destination when you raise prices. Prices control the market, even if the business traveler (using his bosses money). Every road ends at a mainline company for 95% of you. Get that process done as soon as possible. Prices will continue going up a while. Dont be at edv when it happens.

Inflation is also an important factor, average ticket fares have been in the $220 range for several years. That should drift up to $400 or so by the end of next year, and in that market, all flying at mainline makes sense.

My take is that all that is not bad. It's all great. I just don't think the RJ's are going away anytime soon. And without scope relief, I'm sure there is a place for the Deuce in Delta's network for many years to come. Odds are Skywest or 9E will fly the last one to the desert.

Delta will take them away if we can't keep them out of the mud. A crew slide off in RDU last night... SMH. When it's icy you should probably taxi slow.. just saying.

Slow doesn’t always cut it. If you get onto a big patch of slippery ice, sometimes there is nothing you can do but to hold on and when that happens try to remember to report any areas of concern for the guy behind you. While speed is extremely important, proper ground prep is equally as important. Remember we’re not equipped with all terrain tires. Just saying.

With criticism like that I hope you were actually there.

Absolutely. Spoken like someone who actually does it. I've slid on patches at 2kts but it was sloped. There's only so much you can do if you hit a solid sheet of ice in a turn

I’ve had the aircraft move with idle thrust on ice/snow before, were it not for thrust reversers…