Originally Posted by
BlueHorseShoe2000
What's the utilization like for the remaining 717s? At first blush it doesn't seem all that impressive. At one point the goal was to have all mainline planes in the air at least 11 hours per day.
The weekday 717 utilization is 12.11 hours per day. I didn't work through the weekend schedule yet. I'm sure that it is somwhat lower and will pull the average down some, but it's probably around 11 hours.
What probably makes it seems light is that nearly all the shorter hops are gone. This time last year there were 12 flights under 450 miles flown on mailine, and all but two of those are replaced by 170 ro CRJ. That makes the total number of 717 flights fewer, but the utilization is high.
The utilization would be even higher if in the 9:45pm outbound block they still had 717's to OMA, MSP, and MCI instead of the planned 170s. However those departures rarely exceed 65-70 passengers even in the summer peak, so the 170 is a better fit.
Originally Posted by
BlueHorseShoe2000
1) Does OMA-DCA become all E170? If so, I wonder if this is more of a demand issue on the OMA or MKE side. I say this because the OMA-DCA and OMA-MKE 717 flights currently loop together. Perhaps it's a case of keeping fares artifically high be reducing capacity.
Yes, OMA-DCA becomes all-170, however OMA-MKE is all-CRJ.
That means that the 1:30pm MKE-OMA flight (which will become a CRJ) will turn right around and come back to MKE, arriving MKE at 4:30pm....too late for the classic 345pm eastbound block. They could easily swap the 170 on that MKE-OMA-MKE trip (at that same time of day there are 170 trips to both CMH and PIT that could go back to CRJ) and that would preserve the aircraft switch at OMA. But as it stands now, the 170 sits at Omaha from 1:10pm until 3:40pm...by far the longest time any 717, CRJ or 170 is idle.
Originally Posted by
BlueHorseShoe2000
I really question the economics of sending the E170 on MCI-LAX. That's a long flight for a 76 seat aircraft. The 717 would appear to be a better option considering stage length and traffic composition.
I was definitely surprised to see the 170 on MCI-LAX. I suppose, however, that they're working to concentrate the 717's on the main Midwest east-coast destinations from MKE. Were the MKE-MCI-LAX-MCI-MKE trip kept on the 717, that would mean two more round trips from MKE to/from BOS, LGA or DCA would have to be shifted to the 717.