Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Small planes

I fly a Regional Jet....a small one. One so small I can barely stand upright without my head hitting the ceiling...guess I'm a little taller than average.

At least once a I day a passenger walks on board and says "Oh this is a small plane!"

I used to get annoyed by this. I don't walk into their office and make comments. I know just label them ignorant.

MOST (but not all) of the routes my airline flies are to smaller cities. Places like Cedar Rapids, Peoria, Fargo, Highfill (Walmart) and Montgomery. Most of the time the flights aren't full thus using a RJ vs a 737 makes sense. Small cities get small planes...for now.

My crystal ball (remember I'm a pilot with a degree in Journalism and have in fact stayed at a Holiday Inn Express...so I'm an expert!) forecast bigger aircraft serving these small cities, but at a price. The price for the ticket will be higher and the frequency will go down.

For example, instead of 3 flights a day from Cedar Rapids (7AM kickoff, 12PM midday and 5PM evening) there will likely be just a 7AM kickoff. Instead of 3 flights a day to Cedar rapids (9 AM kickoff, 3PM midday and 8PM evening) there will just be one 7PM evening flight.

So the passenger who wants to go from Cedar Rapids to Hawaii will have to take that 7AM flight and just wait around the terminal for hours until the flight to Hawaii leaves. When they return at 6AM from Hawaii (due to the time differences several Hawaii flights return to the mainland early in the morning) they get to wait all day long until the 8PM evening flight. Worry not though it will be on a "big plane".

 

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