Originally Posted by
beckoa
I'm not sure if we'll see the E175's up here or not, as their cold weather performance is sub par IIRC. And that was a primary issue with the Q400 as well. Size wise, they are better suited. Also cargo is restricted on these aircraft compared to 737's.
As I recall, the E175 isn’t certified to operate below something like -36 Fahrenheit. For that reason I doubt we’d ever see it in FAI (DL ran the E175 up there for a couple winters and had to cancel whenever there was a cold snap; I think it’s one of the reasons they now send a A319 in the offseason) or doing any of the Arctic flying (SCC, BRW, OTZ, OME). But, I could definitely see it doing ADQ and the smaller towns in SE (CDV, YAK, PSG, WRG), and maybe even BET. The other benefit is it has the range and comfort level to easily do SEA-ANC, which would make rotations through the system easier.
Time will tell, but something tells me the current 73G/73H strategy on all of the intra-Alaska stuff is a stopgap.