Originally Posted by
lincolnjkc
Wonder how likely those are to stick / be offset by a drop in frequency -- CR2 to 76-seater is a pretty big capacity jump (50%+) -- surprised they didn't get rolled to an e-145 or CRJ550 (or even an e170)
I haven't seen an ERJ in ORD in quite some time, its either been CR2s or CR55/7, and a bunch of 175s. It wouldn't make sense to cycle one through to serve such a limited market.
Originally Posted by
atword
ORD-ATW typically has five flights each way, each day; all FULL. All on ZW 50-seaters, so we're at 250 per day. If we drop to a frequency of four per day on a 70/76 seater, we'd gain a little capacity, as well as first class seats to compete with Delta and American that already offer them into ATW. E175 has too much range to sit on the route for long, so I won't be surprised if it's a placeholder, or temporary. I was hoping for CRJ550, but GoJet has too many parked. DEN-ATW would be a good route for an E175.
I was looking at my son's July itinerary. His outbound is still showing as a ZW CR2, which we know will change, but his return is showing an OO E175.
That's a nice bump. I've noticed that one of the DEN-MKE flights has switched to a 737, and not even during peak times. There's usually a 175 or CR7, maybe that's been pushed to ATW. I don't fly through ATW a ton (its the closest, but MKE for me is only 20 minutes longer and a lot less expensive for both cars and flights, GRB is similar.) The times that I have, flights in/out of ATW have been half full at best, and there's been a few times where the GAs have combined flights if one is delayed and the plane was still less than half full.
Originally Posted by
atword
I suspect ZW will close the DAY base. The American announcement said ZW would be flying "primarily from Chicago". Maybe PSA continues to handle the Dayton flights?
The Mesa element of the changes makes it more interesting, especially with the announcement that they would be operating out of DEN. That means UA needs someone to pick up slack in ORD and points east. Mesa out of DEN may free up some SkyWest crews for ORD routes. Hopefully we don't just trade ZW CR2s for OO CR2s!
So long as they can keep the time in the air to under 45 minutes a CR2 is fine. 175 nm, nothing more. Covers most of Wisconsin, western MI, parts of IN and IA, and a sliver of OH. Almost 900 miles on a CR2 is just inhumane.