Originally Posted by CA_Traffic

Apples and oranges. PIT and STL are both much larger cities, BNA has strong leisure demand, and RDU is a fast-growing financial and biotech hub.

The midwest cities that were cut (IND/CLE/CMH/etc..) are generally smaller, and likely have a relatively stagnant demand pattern.

I've been vocal upthread that this makes my life more difficult, but I do see the rationale. I'm sure AC would happily serve them if they had the equipment (or pilot capacity) but sadly it seems to not be the case. I do wonder if getting rid of aircraft that work for these routes is a short-sighted decision, essentially giving up on these markets for the long term and kneecapping the ability to get flight hours to new FOs, but I don't run an airline...