you must be new to these forums, otherwise you would know that ACL65 is far from being a rj guy. Just as I am far from being a Pinnacle FO, for now..........

Thank you for replying, and I will reply in kind.

First, I was an RJ driver, but not by choice. Only went to that class after the rug was pulled out post 9-11.

Second, CASM is great but if you have to reduce your price of tickets to fill up a jet, then the overall profit is about the same. CASM is as it states, per seat, and if you have a 100 seat jets that has a CASM equal to a 120 seat jet, the smaller jet is still cheaper to operate because there are less seats.

Third, airline marketing managers do a real poor job over time selling X amount of seats and letting the other ones go empty on routes where a 100 seat jet is the correct answer. We have seen some of this with the MD90. They are dumping seats at the last minute on the internet just to sell em. That breaks the whole model.

The C-Series is an expensive jet, but it will be a game changer. Bombardier needs a Legacy North American lunch customer. I truly believe that its lack of orders is two fold. One is the list price is high, but the larger reason is no Legacy wants to buy it and fly it at mainline and have another Legacy outsource it to the connection lift. As soon as one of these carriers puts their order in and commits to flying it at mainline, its order book will grow.

One of the benefits of this jets is it has a 100 and 130 seat variant. There is talk of a 150 seat variant too. CASM goes down as a jet is lengthened. The 318 and 319 are shorter versions of their original design and by virtue of that fact, have higher CASM's. The C-series is starting with a CASM that is equal to these jets, and as they lengthen it, that CASM will decrease.

I think another reason for the tepid responce is that for this jet to work for a given major, they'd need to commit to a fairly large order. I don't think anyone wants to be the carrier doing the "ice breaking" in regards to the usual teething problems new designs usualy have, at least not when there are other alternatives and there are. Additionally, lending by banks, etc. is tight right now, so financing may be an issue and of course as already mentioned, the price is high relative to established competition.

All things considered, I'd not expect a current legacy to angle toward this bird for the time being and it will be up to a regional to make the smaller one viable. This design could be a player 5-10 years from now though.

A geared turbofan on the 757 would be very expensive and require a lot of engineering and almost certainly a entirely new center wing box much like the A320. I would be very surprised if any aftermarket companies took on that kind of expense. Just getting the A320 reengined is taking Airbus almost 5 years in work. The overall cost on each airframe would probably be way beyond any potential fuel savings.

I highly doubt that will happen. That aircraft will not sink or swim either way based on some dirt bag cut throat regional airline's pilot cost structure.

Very likely. I think this aircraft will be more prominent outside the U.S. then within. The regionals of the future will be embroiled in minimum cost relatively short-term contracts not conducive to getting the financing for expensive aircraft like this.

It's not just the aircraft CSM.. Think of the "Regional" doing the underwing ground handling.. 2 $10 a hour rampers/gate .. Or you have Delta with 4+ $XX hour rampers/Gate..
Alot of cost savings are going on in the whole "ground handling" game right now...

DAL operates all of the ground handling for DCI in ATL and other main stations. Many outstations are subcontracted out and they service not just DCI but mainline.

Gate is DAL in all major hubs as well. Only the small outstations have DCI agents.

Delta also bills DCI for all that handling, often at above market rates. Its a profit center for many stations. Comair and ASA get charged 750 bucks just to wipe the frost off the wings in the morning. Station managers love it because it really helps their profit and loss.

But it's the marketing that matters. At least up front. After that, well usually it's too late to matter short term, and that's how companies think these days.