Sorry to bump this thread from oblivion (new mods: bring on Teh Ban Hampsterz!) but I feel an itch to chime in. I've been gone all week traveling for work, and actually qualified for diamond on Delta as I apparently have no real life!
The new United is working out how to stop using the regional airlines, and only use mainline. After this, others will start dumping theirs too.
I'm not sure where you got this information, but nowhere is this on their agenda. There are many catchment areas of 2M+ in which both UA and CO have virtually halted mainline service. Most of these markets are in the midwest, and have already been handed over to Delta and the LCCs on a silver platter. Restoring mainline service to some of these places would require a completely new hiring campaign for airport personnel alongside major pushes to regain a share of these local frequent flyer markets.
Tilton and Smisek have both placed huge focuses on outsourcing to regional carriers in recent years. In fact, compared to 2000, United's capacity is up slightly, yet their total mainline fleet size has been reduced by almost 40%: considering the PS subfleet and a slight growth in the international fleet, their actual domesic mainline fleet is only about 40% the size that it was ten years ago. On top of that, United's new and ever-expanding contracts with ExpressJet seem to show that the Embrarer flying is here to stay. They're in pretty deep with these contracts.
This ***** SUCKS. I've been flying AirTran for years, building up frequent flyer points, and almost always fly business class due to upgrades and such. The merger, according to the website, will do away with business class and seat assignments altogether. I guess I will be finding a new airline, as I'm not sure I can go back to dealing with the general public on airplanes.
God, this pisses me off.
For what it's worth, Delta will immediately match your AirTran Elite status to Silver Medallion. If you fly enough to get to gold (50k miles or 60 segments), I'd definitely recommend that switch.
Disclaimer: Idiots fly Delta, too. Sitting next to me in 2B on Delta may be worse than sitting with the cattle on Southwest.
The 717 is a nice jet, quiet, very quiet in the front. Airtran has 86 (estimated) of them, and Southwest will be keeping them until the leases run out, or they will keep them for longer, or possibly purchase 25 more of them that are from Midwest Airlines. It will be interesting to see what routes they put them on, most likely routes that are too much for a 737 (137 seats), compared to the 717 with 117 seats.
It's worth noting that WN doesn't fly to many markets where they can't support at least eight flights each day. AirTran, however, does. Multiple AirTran destinations won't be able to support 737s due to runway lengths, and thus probably won't be viable for the combined carrier in the long-term. The CRJs will be trashed first for certain, likely followed by the focus city in Milwaukee. The 717s have traditionally served the lowest-yielding routes in FL's network, and probably won't work well in most of Southwest's markets.
As to the 717s from YX, almost all of them went to Click and their futures are unknown at this point. If Aeromexico decides to take over most of Mexicana's assets, they'll probably be serving the same Mexican domestic routes as before. A few that were returned to Boeing are now being leased privately by individuals, as well.
Well, that's enough. And still three hours until my redeye. FML. It's a damn good thing that there are free cookies and wine selections in the lounge.
