I noticed in the last month Delta Connection is changing its route structure quite abit. Check this out:

DFW-MOB SkyWest CRJ-200 (Starts in Jan 2002)
DFW-PNS SkyWest CRJ-200 (Started this month)
MOB-DFW Comair CRJ-200 (Cancelled a few months ago, why Comair?)

Yes this is true, and look for Skywest service from DFW-COS and vice-versa. Good Observation!

Also
MDTATL becomes Comair
ABEATL becomes Comair
DFWGSO Comair
---------------------------------------------------
BTVCVG is Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA)
LGACVG will have ACA in january
DL6219/GSOCVG (ACA)
DL6287/RDUCVG (ACA)
DL6386/BHMCVG (ACA)
3X ACA service BNACVG
4X ACA service GSPCVG
4X ACA CAECVG
1X ACA BOSCVG
-----------------------------------------------------
Starting 1Jan
DFWICT (Skywest)
DFWOKC (Skywest)
DFWMEM (Skywest)
DFWGSO (Skywest)
DFWBHM (Skywest)
DFWIAH (Skywest)
-----------------------------------------------------
I think Delta is basically learning from the Comair strike that they need feed even if the regional is down. ASA's pilot contract is up soon, therefore Comair in ATL and Skywest out of DFW.
Comair is punished with a lot of new service to CVG with ACA.

So does that mean that SkyWest will be taking over DFW GSO service ... or that Comair and Skywest will serve that route?

I;ve also wondered why there are no ASA flights into GSO.

actually with the exception of DFWMEM all the routes that skywest is taking out of DFW are also serviced by another DL coded carrier as well, i.e. Comair DFWGSO and ASA from DFW to everywhere else.
Sorry if I wasn't clear on my previous post.

The Comair strike hurt DL and CVG so much because Comair was the only Connection carrier in CVG (besides the CVG-BTV ACA flight), that Delta has decided to diversify its hub structure, having more than one Connection carrier operating in most hub cities.

Actually the Comair strike happened before ACA service CVGBTV. So there was no regional feed there.

This is DL hedging their bets against an ASA pilot strike. Their contract is amendable in August 2002 and they do not want a repeat of the Comair fiasco.

Will ACA use Comair's Concourse C at Cincinnati? It'll be weird, as "Comair" is written all over the place (Front of check-in counters). Oh well, its still designed for Regional Jets.

ACA is using concourse A at CVG.

Concourse C is still exclusively Comair.

Ok,

This is my view: views by the host don't necessarily reflect the company and it's sponsors

The mixing of RJ's simply comes down to asset allocation. Lets examine this a bit airline by airline.

ACA: The northeast section of the country has been hit very hard by the events of Sept 11th. Therefore ACA had an over-capacity of aircraft based on market demands. (rhetorical question) So, do you fly your normal schedule and not make money; or do you move these assets somewhere where they can make money? The Cincinnati hub is going to continue to grow, but Comair is not back to being at full strength due to the strike earlier in the year. Comair will soon be taking deliveries of new aircraft. They deferred many aircraft during the strike. As a matter of fact, some of these aircraft ended up at other Delta Connection carriers.

Skywest: The west coast of the country has not been hit as hard as the east coast has. Therefore, Skywest can continue to grow as they wish. ASA isn't getting orders fast enough to cover both of their bases (ATL and DFW) Skywest can come in and provide the lift capacity that is now needed to protect Delta market share out of the DFW domicile. It makes sense to move the assets to DFW. Why put them in ATL, CVG, or LGA? DFW logically ties into the west coast of the country.

Comair: They are still recovering from the strike and are still not back to pre-strike levels. The have cut back in certain markets and therefore have a little extra capacity. That is why they moved assets to ATL. That move was all about protecting Delta mainline routes. As the new year approaches, Comair will start taking deliveries again and will grow.

ASA: This is a tough one. I think the reason you don't see a lot happening here is two-fold. First, due to Delta's scope language it now makes sence to replace the EMB-120's as quickly as possible. They are taking up block hours that could be better utilized by Regional Jets. Therefore, you don't see a lot of "growth" by ASA. Secondly, I believe there might be a grain of truth to the conspiracy theorist out there. ASA's contract is amendable soon and Delta will do what it can to influence the ranks. However that being said, Comair continued to grow right up to their strike. So who knows? As far as the people out there that think Delta is "cross-stitching" the Delta Connection network together in order to prevent the situation of taking a single hub hostage; I don't think that it would be possible to intermix the carriers fast enough to protect all of the routes that ASA flys. That would be an enormous undertaking and all of the connection carriers combined don't have the lift capacity to pull that off. Now, it Delta wants to protect some "key" routes then it would make sense to do that.

That is my opinion, I'm sticking with it and I could be wrong!

Happy flying!!!

RJ

You can also add:

TLH-DFW on SkyWest starting Jan 1, 2002 with two daily flights. This is a brand new route...never flown by ASA or DL.

MOB-DFW will be a mix. Two flights on ASA and one on SkyWest.

SkyWest should do well with routes like DFW-MOB, DFW-PNS and DFW-TLH as there is no direct competition...American long ago abandoned these cities.

Key to remember though is that the growth by SkyWest out of DFW comes at the expense of some Western markets. SkyWest was supposed to begin SLC-EUG, SLC-MRY and SLC-SBA...but these routes were cancelled and the planes sent east.