The return of 16 717's is 16 out of the original 25.

25 717 lines of original flying
24 717 lines of flying as of 7/31/07 (one removed for scheduled mx rotation)
22 717 lines of flying as of 5/1/08 (two 717's parked last spring)
20 717 lines of flying planned for 9/8/08 (the cuts planned for September)

With today's news, that is being further reduced to 9 lines of 717 flying. That's a reduction of 11 more lines of flying with today's annoucement. Those 11 lines of 717 flying are being replced by the 12 E-170s.

That's why today's annoucement does not mean any additionaly flying cuts. Doesn't mean there are zero changes coming for sure, but there don't need to be.

I took the fall schedule and worked through what nine 717's could do, focusing on the highest-volume and longest markets.

Putting the nine 717's on the longest/heaviest traffic markets, here's what that could mean:

MKE-DEN (both flights)
MKE-PHX (both flights)
MKE-LAS (both flights)
MKE-MCO
MKE-LGA (three of five flights)
MKE-BOS (two of four flights)
MKE-DFW (one of four flights)
MKE-MCI (three of six flights)
MCI-LAX
MCI-SEA
MCI-SFO
MCI-LGA (all 3 flights)

All the rest of the flights would be E-170's.

No certainty this is exactly what they will do, but if they indeed use the 717s on the longest and heaviest routes, this is the approximate mix we'll see.