I flew on regionals a whole lot back in the 2006-2008 timeframe and I remember it vividly. The airplanes were smaller for sure. For US Airways Express, lots of Dash 8 flying. I remember flying a Saab 340 from Hattiesburg to Memphis. I specifically remember a flight on a Crash 8 from PHL-ISP in 2007 with three passengers. Three. Flying half empty airplanes was common then, and flying standby was an absolute breeze.

Smaller airplanes, half empty flights, etc. Totally different. Comparing departures between now and then is like comparing apples to oranges, IMO.

I agree, the role of the “regional airline“ has changed tremendously trough-out the years, when I was flying the 175 it was all major cities pairings, we were not flying “connecting” flights to the hubs, we were flying the same routes as the 737’s or the 320’s.
The question is if the majors will decide to fly only 737’s or 320’s on those routes and remove the “regionals” from their schedules.
They will do what is financially advantageous to them, whatever that might be.


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When each major is hiring 1000 pilots a year again. I'll leave that up to you to guess when/if that will ever happen again.

The role of network carriers is to aggregate demand. There’s a lot of money in connecting Birmingham and Montgomery to Seattle and Spokane. Regionals aren’t going away