Originally Posted by
HDQDD
Yes these are not normal times and this was a DLC flight, not DL. That doesn't change the fact that flights (full or empty) don't operate in a vacuum. Crews and airplanes still have lines of flight to operate. Airplanes still need to end up in maintenance bases to have scheduled checks and work done. Having worked years in system ops, I can tell you load is way down on the list of cancellation criteria.
Most importantly for the OP's situation, like I said before, regionals don't get paid if they don't operate the flights. They could care less whether there are 100% or 0% load factors. They still get paid the same for operating said flights.
Look at the cancellation numbers today. Every mainline carrier pretty much cancelled 200-600 flights today in the US, same with yesterday. Those are capacity cuts. I'll give you the DLC, I wasn't paying attention, but the mainline are definitely cutting for low yield. No one is doing scheduled checks right now. No one is doing maintenance right now. Flight crews are way underutilized other than open time to parking lots.