Originally Posted by
knope2001
The most interesting comment to my eyes as conventional wisdom is that RJ's under 70 seats are a dying segment and marginal at best. BB himself said a few months back that they did not expect RJ's in Denver. Now this could be a function of such factors as (a) Needing to replace the Q400's in a few months and finding demand or aircraft availability not suited to use the E170, or perhaps (b) they know of some RJ's which will come out of fee-for-departure service and are looking for a home for them. It's worth remembering that Republic kind of has best-of-both worlds when it comes to the RJ's in the branded operation...(1) They don't have to pay someone else a premium to fly them for them like big airlines give a profit margin in fee-for-departure deals (2) They have the benefits of scale by flying scores of RJ's, (3) The RJ aircraft is not in high demand so they can get additional shells if necessary for comparably cheap prices.
I wonder if they are thinking of a sizable operation there with many new routes, or if it is primarily about replacing remaining Q400's. If it's the latter, they could keep them primarily east but rotate aircraft and crews west via midpoints like GRB, DSM, OMA, MSN, etc.
This is pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if the E170 is simply too large for many of the Lynx markets, especially during non-peak times.
Loads have never been all the spectacular on many of the Q400 flights so perhaps the E145 will be a better fit. The operating costs will obviously be higher but perhaps not unworkable given that the flying will remain in-house.
Bedford did say that if the summer schedule went well more lift would be available this fall. I'm hopeful that if the ERJs do replace some of the E170 flying, some of that lift will make its way back to MKE. There are a number of existing routes that could certainly use more capacity.
Interesting developments nonetheless. Republic seems to buck conventional wisdom and early results appear promising.