Regional airliner

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Flybe Bombardier Q400
Flybe Bombardier Q400
Régional ERJ 145 operating for Air France
Régional ERJ 145 operating for Air France

A regional airliner is a small airliner designed to fly between 35 and 100 passengers from point to point, generally within one country. They are often operated by commuter airlines or by government militaries to transport troops between bases, although some large major airlines operate their own regional fleets. The regional jet (RJ) is a jet-engined aircraft of the same class that has become the aircraft of choice for most domestic operations.

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[edit] History

In the early days of aviation, most aircraft had a relatively short range so that all airlines were regional in nature. With the introduction of longer range aircraft, notably flying boats, these smaller airlines increasingly turned to feeding these longer range airlines by flying passengers to the developing airports. Many of these smaller airlines were eventually bought by the larger flag carriers.

To make these short routes economical, the airlines were generally unwilling to spend large amounts of money on new aircraft. Instead, older aircraft were put into this service when they were replaced by longer-range designs. In the immediate post-war era these were typically DC-3's, although even the De Havilland Dragon Rapide remained in service for some time. This "hand-me-down" process of supplying shorter range (and more economical) regional aircraft continued, with designs like the Convair 440, DC-6 and Vickers Viscount serving in this role while the first jets were introduced.

By the mid-1950s, demand for more economical designs led to the production of the first custom feederliners. These were almost always turboprops, which had fuel economy on par with piston engine designs, but had far lower maintenance costs and often the time between engine overhaul periods was five times that of the best piston engines. Early examples of these designs include the Avro 748, Fokker F27 and Handley Page Dart Herald.

These designs were so successful that it was many years before newer designs bettered them enough to make it worthwhile to develop. There were a few exceptions, generally tailored to very specific roles. For instance, the Handley Page Jetstream was intended for smaller number of passengers at much higher speeds, displacing many smaller designs like the Beechcraft Queen Air. The Fairchild/Swearingen Metro filled a similar niche, being developed from the original Queen Air through a number of stages.

By the 1970s the first generation feederliners were starting to wear out, and a replacement program started. De Havilland Canada started this process with the introduction of the Dash 7, but this was tailored more to the short-range STOL role than feederliners. They were considerably more successful with their Dash 8, which had economic benefits over the earlier generation machines, and was faster and quieter as well. This sparked off the development of a number of similar designs, including the ATR 42, Saab 340 and Fokker F50. With all this competition, the market quickly saturated and most of the lines shut down.

Another reason for the downturn in the turboprop market was the introduction of the first regional jets. The first real example is the BAe 146, but as this aircraft has four engines, it could not compete on maintenance costs. This was addressed with the twin-engine Canadair Regional Jet, which became a best-seller and spawned the similar Embraer ERJ 145. These designs had the speed and range needed to compete with much larger designs like the Boeing 737, yet were smaller, allowing them to serve any low-capacity route. Soon they were being used in the feederliner role. Although not as economical as the turboprop, they could fill both this role and the medium-range airliner role, and were generally better liked by the passengers.

[edit] Turboprop designs

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A number of other aviation firms decided to enter the market, and by the late 1980s turboprop-powered aircraft included the

Consequently there were a relatively large number of aircraft offered by manufacturers in this sector of the market, pushing older 1950s designs from Fokker, Vickers and others into retirement. Due to the high level of competition, production of a number of these types ceased. In 2006 only the ATR 42/72 models and the DASH-8 remain in production, Saab exited the civil aviation market and wrote its debts off, whilst Daimler-Benz Aerospace "pulled the plug" on Dornier.

Development of more cost-effective jet aircraft in the 1990s led to a significant decline in turboprop sales by the remaining manufacturers. Increasing fuel costs since 2001 have increased the cost of jet operations, resulting in some recovery in the turboprop sector.

[edit] Regional jets

Many air passengers were not satisfied with propeller aircraft, for a number of reasons. Propeller aircraft are slower than jets, and they typically do not have air conditioning available during enplaning and deplaning operations. In most cases they cannot be connected to a jetway, have significantly reduced cabin size, and may lack a flight attendant and an on-board lavatory.

Performance issues include the inability to load a full complement of passengers when high fuel loads are required due to weather and air traffic delays. Yet these new small airline companies, conscious of their need to survive economically and provide a financial return to their owners, promoted the use of small turbine powered propellor commuter aircraft on routes extending to smaller cities. What was needed were more efficient small jet aircraft to fill a new niche, long routes with fewer passengers.

The first widely successful regional jet design was the CL-600 Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) in the early 1990s, which soon started replacing almost all other new aircraft purchases for these new regional airlines[citation needed]. The CRJs range is enough to fill mid-range routes as well, routes previously served by larger aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and DC-9. These aircraft were originally intended to be used for direct airport-to-airport flights, bypassing hubs.

[edit] Further developments

The main competitor which emerged for the CRJ was the Embraer ERJ 145. Fairchild-Dornier introduced the 328JET to compete, but went bankrupt soon afterwards and the type did not enter large scale production. and a Fokker-ERNO design ended when Fokker went bankrupt before the design was finalized. Bombardier, which had previously purchased Shorts, Canadair, de Havilland Canada and Learjet, turned down the offer to purchase Fokker, and the design forecast to replace the shelved BRJX died with Fokker.

Smaller jetliners have been a part of the market since the early days of jet airliners. The Sud Caravelle would today be placed in the "small" category due to size alone Other examples include the 40-seat Yakovlev Yak-40 and mid-sized BAe 146 and Fokker F100. The key difference between these designs and current regional jets is operational costs, the new designs cost significantly less to operate, making them suitable for many different roles, as opposed to simply being "short-mid range airliners".

In 2005, the "regional jet" boom suddenly collapsed, as increasing fuel prices and airline bankruptcies led to a rethinking of route structures. The high per-seat operational costs of the classic 50-seat regional jet have been exacerbated by an environment of ever-lowering fares. Furthermore, RJs increasingly were assigned to operate flights of two hours or more. This led to passenger complaints, as their comfort and ergonomics compare unfavorably to the larger "mainline" jets which they replaced on these flights. In late 2005, Canadair suspended its CRJ-200 production line[1], marking the end of an era for the regional jet. The new trend is for larger aircraft with better economics, exemplified by Canadair's 70-seat CRJ-700 and the 70-110-seat Embraer E-Jets series. The E-Jets in particular blur the line between "mainline" and "regional," as their cabin comfort is comparable or superior to traditional narrowbody jets like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 while offering ranges of over 2,000 miles. By comparison, the original DC-9 jet aircraft were designed to seat approximately 75 passengers.

[edit] Features

Regional airliners are typically flown by the regional airline partners of the larger international airlines. An aircraft's lifetime cost is a combination of three factors: the purchase price, maintenance costs, and operational costs such as fuel use.

Seating on regional airliners tends to be narrow and tight, and passengers typically are restricted from bringing on board carry-on items which would fit without difficulty in the overhead bins of larger aircraft. While designed primarily for medium stage lengths, RJs may now be found supplementing major trunk routes alongside traditional larger jet aircraft on routings including Chicago to Houston; Atlanta to Dallas; Pittsburgh to Philadelphia; and Cleveland to Newark. RJs allow airlines to open new "long, thin" routings with jet equipment which heretofore did not exist, such as Atlanta to Monterrey, Mexico. RJs have also meant a return of jet service to cities where full-size jet service had departed over a decade ago, such as Macon, Georgia, and Brownsville, Texas.

The notion that regional jet aircraft are less expensive (per seat mile) than traditional jets is a common misconception. On a per mile basis the RJ's cost can in fact be higher. The reason that regional jet operators provide an economic benefit to traditional airlines comes from the fee-per-departure payment structure under which these aircraft are operated. In this payment structure, a traditional airline contracts with a regional airline company on a per departure or per flight basis regardless of the number of passengers or the length of the flight. The traditional airline gets to keep all the revenue from the ticket sale and only pays the regional partner the agreed to amount. These contracts tend to be long term agreements, typically 10 year terms. The regional airline partner can then be relatively sure of the revenue side and only has to control cost in order to earn a modest return. However, these "regional airlines," now really "small jet providers" of contracted aircraft, have been squeezed by airline bankruptcies, fleet reductions and increasing operating costs. Legacy carriers have no longer been willing to shoulder burdensome losses from guaranteed-profit contracts with their small jet providers, and accordingly have played carrier against carrier in a low-bid game that has left hundreds of RJs idle in the desert and others potentially on their way to be laid up.

The idea that regional jets would provide point-to-point service and bypass the hub-and-spoke system may not be materializing as it was expected. As of January 2003, 90% of all regional jet flights in the United States had a hub or major airport at one end of that flight, and this number has been gradually increasing since 1995.

[edit] List of regional airliners

[edit] 1950s

[edit] 1960s

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 1980s

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 2000s

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bombardier to suspend CRJ200 production Airline Industry Information, October 31 2005
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