impilot wrote:KCaviator wrote:Rumors are that Delta will be down to 3 regionals: Endeavor, Republic, and SkyWest. They are the only major that cares about their product. The other 2 only care about hiring the cheapest regional feed.
I’d say JetBlue is another major that cares about their product, which was the reason they cited they never had any regional feed, even before their pilots voted in scope that now prevents regional feed. The fact that delta still has regional feed shows they only *kind of* care about their product. And SkyWorst is kind of a joke these days. Not exactly a glowing endorsement for a good product.
So, what would you suggest Delta do in lieu of contracted regional feed? Many of those cities don't generate enough traffic to support a 717, and scope contracts go both ways — there's no way that they'd legally be able to add E-jets and CRJs to the mainline certificate and staff them with mainline pilots. The scope contracts exist as a way of keeping the regionals in business in a post-deregulation industry.
CRJ200flyer wrote:Some questions
-Does having more regional partners help or hurt an operation?
It's a double-edged sword. About 20 years ago, DL had only four regional partners: SkyWest, Comair, ASA, and Business Express. They were the "original four" Delta Connection carriers, and for the most part they operated exclusively into specific hubs. BEX covered the eastern seaboard, feeding into Boston and New York; ASA covered the southeast, feeding into ATL; SkyWest covered the western half of the US, feeding into LAX and SLC; and Comair covered the midwest, feeding into CVG. In 2001, amid a labor/contract dispute, Comair pilots went on what became a 90-day strike that shut down their flight operations entirely, and crippled Delta's midwestern regional feed.
Most of the other mainline carriers (UA, NW, US) worked with their regionals the same way, with each contracted operator focusing on a particular region.
After the Comair strike, Delta and the other mainline carriers changed their approach, and started overlapping their partners' territories so that multiple operators were feeding into their different hubs, so that if there was ever another major operational issue with one regional partner, it'd be way easier to have a different partner backfill those routes.
With all of the consolidation over the past industry (and/or airlines going out of business), the regional partners are less about covering specific geographic regions and more about offering specific aircraft type/capacity (Republic is now exclusively operating E170s and 175s; Air Wisconsin is still exclusively CR2, etc.)
I think the mainline carriers are still reluctant to consolidate to too few partners if for no other reason than for the risks involved if there ever ends up being another major strike or operational shutdown. Having more partners also gives the mainline carrier leverage when renegotiating contracts.
SkyWest and Republic aren't going anywhere anytime soon; they both have very large fleets and very deep roots with all three mainlines.
Trans States (which includes GoJet and Compass under its corporate umbrella) is #3 in size, but I regularly hear mixed reviews about their service quality (especially GoJet). Trans States itself is still only flying E145s, which puts them in a weak spot; Compass and GoJet with 170s and 175s still have room to compete for capacity.
Envoy, PSA, and Piedmont are all wholly owned by AA; they're not going anywhere anytime soon, but AA may someday either sell off or consolidate them.
Likewise, Endeavor is wholly owned by DL, so they aren't going anywhere either.
Mesa is the #4 independent regional in terms of size. They provide nearly half of AA's CR9 fleet, and a good portion of UA's E175 and CR7 fleets. They'll likely stick around for the foreseeable term.
ExpressJet, Air Wisconsin, and CommutAir make up the backbone of UA's 50-seat ops. Between those three, ExpressJet is now owned by an LLC affiliated with United, so they're the most likely to stay in the fold. Air Wisconsin and CommutAir are weaker links as they both operate smaller fleets of a single type (CR2 and E145, respectively). I wouldn't be surprised of C5 eventually gets phased out; ZW might be around longer, especially if they can get larger aircraft.
I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.
