Originally Posted by
channa
Is your problem the RJ per se, or the fact that CO has no F in their RJs?
A little of both actually! CO should put some F on their RJ's like just about every other major carrier. Also, around 50% of my flying is on ERJ's and Q-400s and frankly, I'm friggin' sick of them! I've been Platinum for 9 years with almost 800 flights on CO; 377 of which have been on these things (probably more than that since my flightmemory is woefully incomplete). ERJ's should NOT be used as the only service on routes >2 hours. I can understand running a few but that shouldn't be the only option.
Originally Posted by
ssullivan
ATL is experiencing something similar, losing most mainline service, but still keeping a couple of 735s a day. My guess is that some of this has to do with the remaining 733s and a few more 735s being retired from the fleet. CO is ending 2009 with 14 fewer mainline aircraft than it had at the beginning of the year. In 2010, they take posession of 17 new planes, 15 of which will be used mostly for domestic service. Until those new planes start arriving, there simply aren't enough 735s to go around, yet there are tons of ERJs in the fleet they can use to fill the gap. With the loss of the 733s, the 735s are having to cover some of those flights, and some of the traditional 735 flights are being replaced by multiple ERJ frequencies. Hopefully once the new 738s, 739-ERs, and 753s (the last four ex-ATA 753s that CO is finally getting) arrive, the 735s will start to cycle back into some smaller markets. Heck, maybe ATL will even get the 738 back at some point. But until then, we're stuck with a winter schedule full of ERJs in many markets that had mainline service recently.
Thanks for the update and analysis....that makes a lot of sense. Of course at least running one 73x up and back a day would really be a step in the right direction.