I penned a post a while back reflecting on a time when 50 seat RJ’s were viewed as cool. In yet another example of just how things have changed in the economics of regional jets, American’s regional partner, Envoy Air, has announced that it is reducing its operations in Miami (my first crew base..sniff). According to Reuters,
Envoy will roll back its Miami flights to 37 daily departures from 60 starting Dec. 18, according to a letter that Envoy Chief Executive Officer Pedro Fábregas sent to employees. American instead will contract larger 76-seat planes from Republic for these routes, mostly in and nearby Florida.
Just another sign of how much change has taken place in the airline industry over the last decade. Does anyone else remember when the 50 seat RJ was going to rule the world? I surely remember when they darkened the skies over LaGuardia and locked the airport up every afternoon at 5pm. (I may be showing my age here.)
It’s unfortunate for the employees affected, but larger jets are here to stay. The economics of the 50 seat RJ are untenable at current fuel prices. Speaking from the perspective of a passenger, those 76-seat jets are more comfortable, include a premium cabin product, and are much more in line with a “seemless” travel experience.
-MJ, October 4, 2014
Part of the success of Southwest and JetBlue may be their standardization
Southwest has 737s
Nothing else; swapping them out is easy
If the majors had done that with a quick turnaround, there would be no southwest today.
Jetblue also, even though they fly smaller planes ERJs, are big enough not to feel bad and the seats are much better than the 50 seaters.
In a way, many of the airports should never have been built for use
Then you have a place but not much traffic to justify big planes —- ener the 50 seater
Western Maryland, West Virginia, and swaths of midwest have airports built because their congressman could shower money.
MJ, I too remember when CO (CLE was my home airport) got the fleet of RJ’s to replace the dreaded props. It was great…..for a while. I remember a few years later when I showed up for my flight from Cleveland to San Antonio and realized I was headed for the D terminal. I flew the CO 50 seater, with literally no decent seat on the aircraft, and that’s when I realized the party was over. That ended up being my main motivation to get away from CO/UAL. I grew weary of 75% of my flights being on RJ’s.
@Rolo,
I think where all the airlines may have gone wrong with small jets is placing them on 2.5 to 3 hour routes (maybe longer) just because they could.
Overhead a FA mention that there is a plan to phase out Dash-8 in use by US regionals.
Any details on what will replace it or accommodations for airports that can’t handle larger planes? Understand crew based in Salisbury MD would be impacted. Love the Piedmont crews.
@Segments,
Hard to say….the only prop out there that I know of is the Q400 and the ATR. There’s a customer aversion to propellers, but from an efficiency standpoint, they beat pure jets on most shorter routes that they would fly.