Regional airlines with 2nd-class safety fly most domestic routes, more coming

by Charlie Leocha on March 12, 2010


This is an alert for anyone concerned with our nation’s deteriorating airline service. Those following negotiations with airline pilots are betting that the mainline carriers will soon allow regional pilots to fly aircraft carrying up to 125 passengers.

That means more regional flights for domestic passengers. Translation: more poorly trained pilots, smaller planes, underpaid staff, less service and more consumer confusion.

The regional airlines have taken over more than 50 percent of the total U.S. domestic air flights. They have also been involved in every deadly U.S. airline crash recently. Most Americans do not know that the airplanes they are flying on have no relation to the mainline carriers other than a contract.

Regionals already operate 53% of all US domestic departures and are the majority service providers at many major airports, Regional Airline Assn. President Roger Cohen noted. For example, they operate 52.3% of departures at Chicago O’Hare, 56.4% of Houston Intercontinental departures and 52.1% of New York LaGuardia departures.

There is no sharing of training. No sharing on maintenance procedures. No inspections of the regional airline by the mainline carrier. Only a misleading paint job, the same inflight magazines, a common frequent flier program, common tickets and boarding passes as well as misleading advertising.

This situation may get worse before it gets better. Airlines are focusing on their long-haul business and forming alliances and joint ventures to work around ownership rules of domestic airlines. Consumers should beware.

Speaking yesterday at the FAA Forecast Conference in Washington, Swelbar said that if unions representing mainline pilots agree to relax restrictions on the size and number of aircraft that may be operated by regionals in codeshare with majors, the pilots will become “irrelevant in the US domestic market 25 years from now.” Currently, scope clause agreements typically limit the size of regional jets that may be operated under codeshare to 76 seats or fewer. But if, as some suggest, mainline pilots agree to raise the limit to up to 125 seats, regional airlines simply will assume most domestic flying.

The Consumer Travel Alliance is monitoring this situation closely and will inform consumers as these changes begin to take shape. In the meantime, be aware of the actual airline that is operating the flights you have booked. For domestic flights, most of the flight numbers with AA, DL, CO, UA, or US are flown by regional carriers, not the mainline carriers.

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Tagged as: mainline carriers, regional airlines, safety, training

  • MVFlyer

    Fundamentally, I don’t have a big problem with regionals doing the flying. The problem is these lines do not have the same experienced pilots, safety rules and pay scales that the majors have. (There are a couple of notable exceptions to the safety issues: Horizon, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, and Skywest, a well run regional, come to mind)

    The majors fail to realize that by putting their paint jobs on the regional’s planes, they are extending their product lines. They need to be more responsible for the regionals’ actions, particularly if they’re putting their passengers on these planes. Unfortunately, it seems the majors negotiate terms strictly on the basis of $$$, not whether the regional has good maintenance,solid safety training, and experienced pilots who get decent pay and reasonable work rules.

  • Jeff L

    I don’t really have a problem with regionals. Yes, I think they underpay their staffs, but that’s a matter between their staffs and them. Because of the routes I fly, I find myself generally on regional airlines, and honestly have found them to have friendlier staff, cleaner, newer and better maintained planes, and nothing to suggest any form of safety issue.

    Also, for example, I just came back on a USAir Express flight. When I booked the ticket, when I checked in on line, when I checked a bag at the kiosk, AND at the gate it indicated that I was flying UsAir Express operated by Republic airlines. Then the flight crew announced it. If you aren’t aware you are flying a regional, you aren’t paying attention.

  • http://www.tripso.com/author/leocha Charlie Leocha

    You have never seen the words flying USair Express, operated by Republic airlines on an actual airline ticket. There is no space for it. You have never seen a Republic Airlines magazine in the seat pocket. you have never seek a flight number with any other nomenclature than US. You have may have seen a boarding pass with flying USair Express, operated by Republic airlines, but rarely. Most normal folk are lead to believe that there is some sort of subsidiary relationship between the mainline airline and the regional. There is none (except for American Eagle that is a subsidiary of the same corporate parent as AA).
    The intention of the airlines is to mislead and to pretend that they have a bigger network that they actually have. It is form of legal fraud allowed by the DOT for some mysterious reason.

  • MVFlyer

    Charlie–I think the reason the DOT allows it (probably a loophole somewhere) is that all of the seats for a given regional flight are allocated to the major on a contractual basis–the seats aren’t for sale through the operating regional. Thus the regional acts as an arm of the major without the major’s overhead. And, without the regionals, there would be virtually no service to many secondary cities where the majors dare not fly, which may be the real reason the DOT doesn’t want to mess with it.

  • http://www.fly.co.za Tim @ cheap flights

    This is bad for the whole of the airline industry as it will damage the reputation of flying as being a safe and professional experience.

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