Cyio

I don’t think of it in such a devious tone, but spending will eventually have to be repaid. There are ways other than taxes to do it, however that tends to be the quickest and easiest route, plus one that has been used in the past.

drywhitetoast

I think Ronald Reagan said it best. “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Hedley

This administration will pass more environmental regulations than would have happened if the election had gone the other way. Policies have compliance cost and consequences. Raise the cost of compliance or restrict the supply, prices go up. Politicians only tell one side of a story to get votes. They will talk about the jobs that were created due to a policy, but they don’t talk about the jobs that were destroyed or the net loss of employment that results. If fuel prices were to get back to where they were back in 2008, the 50 seat fleet could be quickly retired. Just parking the 200 would shut down Air Wisconsin and hit SkyWest hard since they make up a large part of their fleet and the 70/76 seaters are scoped out. That could have a major impact on the future of UAX.

JediCheese

Easier to use inflation. Hard to point fingers with taxes, much easier for the politicians to blame banks for inflation. Not to mention the rich don't mind inflation because they hold assets which keep their real world value vs taxation which tends to be politically expedient to raise on the rich.

Excargodog

Except the last bonds that AA sold they had to pay 12% for the loan of the money. ForUnited it was 11%



and their financial situation is more precarious now. Except for Alaska, I think all the majors are junk-rated now. And they don’t have the money to pay off their junk rated bonds, instead they must refinance them by selling new bonds collateralized by older airplanes in the face if their own declining credit ratings. That’s bad enough - akin to refinancing credit card debt by repeatedly charging it on a new credit card at higher and higher rates.

Add inflation to that, and the yields will skyrocket. How can ANY company make enough profit to pay off $40 billion (which certainly at least AA will reach before this is over) while paying 15-20% interest on that debt?

Inflating your way out of debt might work for the government which after all prints money, but it will put every major airline (and most regionals) in bankruptcy if it happens.

LAXtoDEN

The CRJ200 is 30% (closer to 20% a year from now) of the SkyWest fleet. 200’s are all paid off, they have more 175’s coming on property, and own all the future orders of ERJ175’s with the CRJ program shut down. I’d assume some 200’s would be moved to SkyWest leasing, and the rest to the dessert.

A scenario of the 50 seater going away would hurt the pilot group and with no scope changes would most likely lead to SkyWest furloughs, but SkyWest Inc. would be just fine.

rickair7777

Yup, Inc will be fine it's not like they didn't know this was coming someday.

Hedley

Finding someone that wants to lease a high mileage CRJ200 could prove to be extremely difficult these days, especially if fuel prices start to rise. You’re right about SkyWest Inc though. They are large, diversified, and set up to survive.

rickair7777

Third world, and/or cargo.

For cargo ops which do two (or less) relatively short flights per day, the economics work in favor of dirt-cheap used airframes, even at the expense of gas mileage.

1. The airplane's not constantly flying, so it can't support the big mortgage of a new bird.
2. Fuel cost isn't that important if you don't fly much.

captive apple

While future plans stated on earnings calls tend to -maybe- happen, it does sound like United is interested in reducing its international exposure by flying those seats domestically which up gauges every route. That is great news for 50 seat reductions.
I didn’t understand how up gauging is going to “increase connectivity”. I’m guessing it means 737s doing routes 700s and 175s couldn’t. That would cut down on passengers visiting two United hubs in a day.
In the end though I don’t think major airlines are going to cut service to class D airports but instead these 50 seaters might be flown in the regional colors on a code share. They want riders our of xyz, they just don’t want their brand on the napkin.