The subject speaks for itself I think. Aircraft routing always amazed me. Especially high frequency a/c that make up the back-bone of some US airlines. The Mad Dog for Delta comes to mind as does the CRJ for regional partners. Now, for the most part, most "regionals" dominate their own airport. Mesaba at MSP, Pinnacle at DTW, SkyWest in SLC, Comair in CVG, and finally the top dog, Atlantic Southeast in ATL.

Now, for the most part, the a/c seem to do a lot of out and backs (ATL-FAY-ATL-VPS-ATL,etc.) However, there are outstations that see 2 or even 3 regional partners and the a/c that came in from ATL may continue onto say MSP. How is this all done? I tracked an ASA CR7 last week. It had started its day in White Planes and a day and a half later it was out west doing runs through SLC and MSP and finally made its way back to Atlanta. Same thing with Pinnacle CR9s. They have a base in ATL but they end up out in the midwest through cities like ICT and OMA, routing through MSP, somehow getting back to DTW through maybe ORF or YYZ then making it's way back to Atlanta.

Very complex I bet and I know scheduled 3 day MTC is built in as well. I've seen CR7s come into ATL mid day and sit on a gate for 5 hours before going back out for regular MTC checks. Then, you'll see a/c disapear from Flight Aware for a few days then return from say CAE, BTR,VPS, etc (all ASA MTC stations).

How is this all done?