I was wondering if some of you gents could help me out. Could you tell me what the break-even point would be, pax load wise, on a 300nm leg in a CRJ200?

Skywest, if that makes any difference.

 

Depends on the price the pax pay for each ticket.

 

If you have a question like this why not go to the source Bombardier. Now you will have plug in some numbers on your own. If reading and doing some math seems like too much work I'll give you and answer 10.1254824

Bombardier CRJSeries - JetSense

 

For a majority of CRJs, those that operate under Fee For Departure agreements with mainline carriers, the BELF is 0. The regional airline gets paid the same either way.

I've had a roundtrip that was empty both ways and called Dispatch to see if we could cancel it, saving fuel expense for mainline and wear and tear for us. After being put on hold for a while the answer came back: We had to go since we got paid for completions.

Crazy industry!

 

A better question to ask is "What are the direct operating cost of a CRJ 200?"

Well, here is a start:
http://www.icao.int/icao/en/ro/allpi...g4/wp28app.pdf
Note that is based on 2000 prices. Jet A is $0.70 per gallon in that sheet, on the spot market today, the price is around $2.10 per gallon Spot Prices for Crude Oil and Petroleum Products. So triple the fuel cost.

 

It varies widely with many factors, but a good ballpark estimate would be 40-65 pax.

Yes, I know it only seats 50...that's why there are so many of them in the desert.

 

Is this a joke? Honest...

There are so many factors that it's not a real question. Very often the passenger buys a ticket from, say, RIC-PHL (an example of a roughly 300 mile trip on the airline I fly with) but that passenger is probably not staying in PHL. That passenger is flying RIC-PHL-FRA or RIC-PHL-DTW or RIC-PHL-LAX. So there is no way of knowing what, or if, there is a break even point. It is all how the airline decides the break it down. The passenger doesn't pay the ticket on a per-leg basis.

This is why it is not quite so cut and dry as to whether or not the 50-seat so-called "RJ" is profitable or not. Nothing is as simple as it looks, including the economics of the CRJ-200.

Finally, pilots are not accountants or business folks for the most part. We all are pretty sure we could run the business better, but really, probably we couldn't. So I doubt there is anyone here who can really answer your question. Why don't you go to www.airlinemanagementforums.com and I am sure they will have the answer.

 

Thanks for the answer.

Just curious why United/Skywest would take over a market with CRJ's, when the previous carrier Delta/Mesaba, couldn't make it work with Saabs.

 

There's no need for the wise crack answers. You only reinforce why I often spend hours on the interstate to find the closest 737.

 

Ask 737 guys their break-even point and you will get "wise crack" answers also.