I think he meant cargo bin, not overhead bin. Nobody is bringing 12 foot surfboards into the overhead on the 717 lol.

Word on the street is that the LEAP engines need to be cold-soaked for operational longevity (I'm not an engineer, I'm just repeating what I've heard), and the Embraers are kind of in the same category. I know there are some straight wing 900s available. They would actually work pretty well, although you guys will hate the comm radios.

Edit: And a 9' longboard would fit easily in the cargo pits.

Cargo is a very valid reason to not fly RJ's. Compared to NB's, they have almost no cargo capacity, other than checked bags.

So given that I'd guess 717's linger until MAX7's are available. Since AS is mandated to retain inter-island service, they'll probably want to make money at it.

Maybe MAX8's, but AS seems to have an inside track on 737 deliveries so I'm sure they can convert orders between 8 and 7, or maybe even adopt delivery slots abandonded by other carriers (pretty sure that's already happened recently).

I think the 7s are a pipe dream, the 8s have proven they can go everywhere the 700s used to, and they are far more flexible. In my opinion 7s make sense if you’re going to cattle car them a la Southwest and Ryan. Who knows though, I’d be pleasantly surprised and not unhappy to see the here.

Assuming equal production availability, it will come down to economics, which is variable depending on the mission. Lots of number crunching needed, far more than we could do on web forums.

In some cases it can make sense to operate a larger airframe below full capacity, even though it costs more up front and burns more gas, just to have the ASM's during lucrative peak travel periods. Again, lots of numbers to crunch.

If the ATR42 wasn't profitable, the Ejet definitely won't be. We have no reason resume service to either of those islands without some kind of government subsidy.

Yes, everything we are doing here is just a WAG. I’m just basing my opinion on what I’ve seen in the Arctic, which I think is similar to inter-island. Time will tell of course.

Yeah but that was the same management that cant make money with 321s/330s/787s either

MKK and LNY are small airports with not a lot of travelers.
Hawaiian flew a DC-9 into MKK twice a day if I remember correctly. 4500" runway with rising terrrain. Could not do it when S-SW winds were there.
HA looked at doing it with the 717, but modern SMS procedures did not allow it.
Really a small island and airport with not a huge demand. Used to be serviced small aircraft and Island Air Dash-8s.

unless Alaska feels like getting some caravans and Pilatus aircraft there is zero chance of making a profit in those communities. The population numbers do not support Jet service or anything bigger than a 19 seat turboprop a few times a day.