I’m not sure why some of you guys in here are putting this much effort arguing about mainline taking on RJ’s. NONE of the RJs are economical enough to make it feasible. A 175 burns nearly what an A321 burns and carry’s 115 fewer people. Those planes aren’t built to be flown on mainline pay scales. Also why would a legacy waste money buying a regional for the pilots when they could just cut the contract, watch it go belly up in the water and assume that at least 1/4-1/2 of those pilots are going to be applying to said legacy anyway. RJs need to go down the $hitter where they belong.

Regionals never should have grown to 150+ jet airlines to begin with. It was relaxing scope and allowing jet aircraft that led the regionals’ to massive expansion. Let them suffer their own consequences and fold.

Seriously, are you incapable of doing your own research?


https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=843131

An excerpt:


https://airlineweekly.com/2022/03/al...of-efficiency/

https://seekingalpha.com/article/436...e-game-changer

https://news.delta.com/deltas-777-ai...-amid-covid-19

If that was true they wouldn’t be pulling routes and replacing other routes or better known as “slots” with RJ’s to begin with. I don’t want to work for a company that operates empty A320’s to replace those RJ routes. That’s because I care for my own job security. If they could replace 5 flights a day with mainline metal from an airport they use two of those slots a day for regional metal, they would have done it already. The only choice would be to give up the slots, and that’s not good for business either, for multiple reasons not just one. Maybe in the end that’s what they end up doing.

I think the idea of taking 175’s and turning them into 90 seaters allowing for some type of B scale could work. You could also replace most of the CRJ routes with the E2’s. Obviously for that to happen it would require buying a regional that actually has assets and bringing it “in house”, removing scope from the conversation. You could sell that move to your shareholders probably, but the problem would be the union. As others have said though, it’s tough to sell the idea of buying out a low cost labor group straight up with assets you already own. That idea of bringing your own WO regional “in house” has never made sense to me, but buying a regional airline with actual assets could work.

The 4 airlines that rely on the regionals for their hub and spoke model could try to go “hybrid” utilizing both the hub and spoke model and spoke to spoke to mitigate the shortage of pilots at the regionals and save some slots in the process, but everyday the regionals are closer to a total collapse and it will never get better for them, only worse. So the “hybrid” model would only work for so long.

United mainline pilots flying 175s? Thanks for the chuckle

It would be 195 E2s or A220s. Not too unrealistic though.

Majors would never purchase a regional for its pilots. It's best to let them fail, close the doors, etc. Majors have been taking over more domestic routes and it will continue. Regionals are slowly going away and will end up being 175's and small. I believe more regionals will shutdown and that is a good thing (more mainline jobs) The economics just aren't there anymore for regionals. The point of regionals was to have cheaper labor, outsourcing 20+ years ago and now times have changed, it makes no sense anymore to have regionals. Regionals will shrink and majors will grow to takeover more and more of the domestic flying. There will always be interview programs such as Aviate and now of course the ULCC's are hiring regional FO's and thats an immediate pay raise right there. Get that A320 type and move on to a legacy or just hangout and be comfy in the right seat of a bus making more as 2nd FO than you did as a regional CA. But, no major will be buying regionals for pilots. Every regional pilot today will have no problem getting hired at a major in the very near future unless you have DUI's, police record, 5 checkride failures.

IF A MAJOR WANTED E2s they could simply buy or lease them, just as some are currently buying/leasing A220s. But with a declining number of pilots in the pipeline, the tendency will be to grow by capacity with A321NEOs and 737MAXs, not opt for smaller aircraft, although their are niches where the smaller aircraft would be helpful for long thin trips. But as of yet, there is no reason to think anybody will ever be buying a regional for its pilots. The regional doesn’t OWN its pilots… it’s a 13th amendment thing.

Not only that, there will be some pilots in the regional pilot group that the major simply doesn’t want. Too many conspicuous piercings or tattoos, too many DUIs, too many training failures, too little education, too sketchy a criminal record or social network postings. They wouldn’t buy the whole group even if they could if it required them to add these people to their seniority lists. Worse yet, these are often the same people they have already rejected multiple times and an SLI would put them in higher positions due to their regional seniority.

No, anyone not hustling, getting hours, getting college completed, getting apps out - you know, the sorts of things that always got you noticed at the next level - and hoping instead that your regional just somehow gets bought up by a major are going to be left behind by the ones who hustle, because it isn’t ever going to happen.

If I put an order in for a 737max, which year would I receive it? Calls on ERJ! The same airline could go to Brazil and order as many E-295s as they want with thousands of regional airline pilots already typed on the aircraft.

The sooner the regional model dies the better, if Delta wants to fly to Escanaba or Williston they can do it, otherwise leave for the Sunnnys or Allegiants.

I don’t think you get it. It’s not like Embraer has e-195s on the shelf in six packs for sale either.

And it doesn’t matter if thousands of regional pilots are Emb -170-190 typed (as am I BTW) because they’d still have to go through the whole training program on the new certificate anyway. I’d grant you that their training risk would be low, but damn few newbies wash out of training at any major anyway. Nor could they restrict the newbies to that aircraft, they would have to use the existing CBA (or a negotiated JCBA) and whatever SLI the mediator decided was appropriate.

Look, it’s clear you are simply ignorant of a lot of this. That’s no crime - we all start there - but you really ought to research the reality a little bit before making hopelessly naive suggestions. Moreover, encouraging yourself and others to count on some fantasy might impair you and others from doing what actually WILL work. This is a time of nearly unparalleled opportunity for anyone with an ATP if they actually work at it, getting the hours and doing the things that historically have worked will let them get to a major more reliably and quicker than in recent history.

Hoping to sort of back your way into a major because they are short of trainers and you have a type they don’t particularly desire (JetBlue is getting rid of their 190s and AA retired theirs a couple years ago https://www.avitrader.com/2020/05/01...ng-767-fleets/) ain’t going to be your path to success at a major and you are ill- informed or foolish to believe otherwise.