<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by keithguy:
A drop in available seat miles combined with a smaller drop in revenue seat miles leads to a higher load factor.
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You bet. And much less availability. Examples in plane type capacities (per seatguru):
ARJ 16 FC + 53 Coach = 69 total
D9S 16 FC + 84 Coach = 100 total
D94 16 FC + 94 Coach = 110 total
D95 16 FC + 109 Coach = 125 total
I have been looking at NW flights for December, and notice the ARJ's ex-EWR. Not happy with this development. Decent plane, just not big enough to maintain availability at a decent price for consumers on peak season / high demand routes. Read: higher prices for consumers.
This also validates the trend of longer flights on RJ's. A recent thread on the CO board mentioned several RJ routes topping 900 miles (and a handful over 1,000 miles I believe.)
I guess the silver linings are:
1) The ARJ is better than the "jungle jets" (although they fly much slower)
2) The ARJ has the same amount of first class seating as the DC9's
3) The ARJ first class to coach ratio of seating is 1 to 3:3
All things considered, not good for those stations effected.
SunLover