That’s exactly what it appears to be. They want them in the second half of 2019, there’s no way Bombardier could get a new type built, and certified that quickly. The renderings look pretty cool, but it seems like it will bleed cash.

Yup. With the 175s coming to ExpressJet 25 CRJ700s from GoJet had to be parked. Then someone came up with this brilliant idea.

Ever heard of an STC?

Why does this seem to be reposted on almost every folder I am looking at? Wouldn’t one general post be adequate?

It's not a new hull. Bombardier has to be involved to create the STC to re-certify the aircraft to only 50 seats for scope.

Because:
- The announcement came from left field.
- The announcement instantly removed one (maybe two?) regionals from death row and instantly put one (maybe two?) other regionals on it.
- AA and DL probably will play copycat. Who knows how that will change the regional playing field?

The announcement is a game-changer. Everyone flying for a regional ultimately is playing that same game. We're all taking notice.

The question is whether AA can afford to play copycat and fall further behind an already expanding revenue gap between DL and UA.

That's the point when Parker buys another airline, amirite?

It sounds like it is NOT a new type as it has commonality with the others. But it sounds like these are new purchase aircraft. They may be a change of 700s that we’re already on order. Whether or not any others get reconfigured is yet to be seen.

And for what it’s worth, when RW was talking about getting rid of the CRJs, he said AA was looking for a new 50 seater, but there was nothing out there unless Bombardier did something else with the CRJ. Maybe he was speculating, maybe he knew something.

Not the first time this has happened. There's a 70 seat max version of the CRJ 900 out there known as a CRJ 705. Now there's a 50 seat max version of the CRJ 700/701/702 known as the CRJ 550.

Apparently ALPA once successfully argued that removing seats and arbitrarily restricting MTOW doesn't qualify for being a smaller airplane with regards to scope. But if you take the airplane and get it re-certified as a type with lower MTOW and max seating capacity it does.

Also, AirCanada is currently having bombardier convert their 705s to 900s with an appropriate change in type. So it's reasonable to believe the FAA would let Gojets get some of their 700s re-certified as 550s.