Scope is up to 76 seats and under 86,000lbs, not 76 seats at 86,000lbs. A 70 seat 175SC is under 76 seats and is under the max scope weight of 86,000Lbs, it's completely compliant with every major carrier.

I like to imagine that “SC” stands for “Scope Clause” :-)

It’s scope compliant but does not make economic sense. The aircraft is really a 82 seater in a normal configuration. The majors are hedging their bets they can reconfigure them to 76 seats in the next round of contracts. I don’t see that happening.

Never going to happen. You will not get management to agree and if they did with a mainline cost structure a big chunk of the flying would simply go away.

Of course it wont happen. In fact, you bigtime * mainline pilots will vote to relax scope for an extra $2/hour. This will ensure less growth at mainline and further the agenda of keeping pilots stuck at a regional while you bypass them on the application lists for 20 somethings with no experience. ALPA gets a bigger bank roll by keeping top rate regional captain dues flowing while still adding a few mainline pilots at the bottom who will eventually pay top dues for longer.

100% READY TO *(endorse)* ALPA

Source? Besides what an airline CEO who has a vested interest in keeping the margins fat and risk low by farming out mainline routes to underpaid regional pilots says?

I know at my airline they brought in the best EF&A people they could to try and make a case the flying could be flown at the mainline. The report back was not good. As one small example of many cost issues 12 year flight attendants make over 70 an hour with PS. Many would flock to the flights with no meal service.

This is a double-hedge. Kirby expects them to relax the scope at UAL. I don't see that happening. The UAL pilot group seems very unified on this issue. But there are still two options on the table:

1) UAL adds another Small Narrow Body (SNB) to their mainline fleet. This 'unlocks' the possibility for more 'regional' 76-seaters. The 175s are then reconfigured as such. Kirby only says that they are to replace the 70-pax CRJ700s in order to hide his true intentions.

2) If UAL's regionals are not able to keep going, these aircraft could (further on down the road) be brought to mainline and flown as 82-pax jets there.

It’s a 78 seat single class aircraft.
Or
88 with 29 inch pitch

Embraer does charge substantially different prices for its 175 models in different seating configuration. The E175SC (70 seat configuration) is priced to compete with the 700. This is no different strategy than what Embraer deployed when they rolled out the 76 seat configuration against the 900 - it is artificially descoped by around 9,000 pounds in max gross weight, not just the number of seats.

To reconfigure it’s seating configuration (and increased gross weight) actually means paying Embraer for the difference in costs for the upgrade and recertifying the aircraft. It isn’t just a maintenance function to increase the seating capacity.

I believe that Kirby is bringing the E175SC on line because the 700’s are getting old, passengers like the 175 better, and regionals can attract more pilots to fly the 175 than they can to fly the CRJ. I think he is simply recognizing the realities of the hand that the United pilot union is dealing him and rolling with it.

What paragraph of the contract “unlocks” the capacity for 76 seaters by adding another SNB? I missed it.