Regional airlines are
airlines that operate
regional aircraft to provide passenger air
service to communities without sufficient demand to attract
mainline service. There are two
ways for a regional airline to do business:
- As a feeder airline, contracting with a
major airline, operating under their brand name, filling
two roles:
- Deliver passengers to the major airline’s hubs from surrounding
communities (this is known as regional feed or
regional traffic), and
- Increase frequency of service in mainline markets during times
of day/days of week when demand does not warrant use of large
aircraft.
- Operating under their own brand, providing service to small and
isolated communities, for whom the airline is the only reasonable
link to a larger town. An example of this is Peninsula Airways, which links the remote
Aleutian
Islands
of Alaska
to Anchorage
. In this role, the term commuter
airline is generally used.
- As an independent airline larger than an
air taxi or commuter airline service, that
operates scheduled point-to-point
transit service under its own brand, that does not meet the
descripitions above or fly larger "mainline sized" (over 100 seats)
aircraft". Mokulele Airlines and
the independently branded Expressjet
Airlines operations to larger and medium size cities, would be
examples of this type of operation in the U.S.
History
Regional airlines began by operating propeller-driven aircraft over
short routes, sometimes on flights of less than 100 miles. In the
early days of commercial aviation few aircraft had ranges greater
than this, and airlines were often formed to serve the area in
which they formed. That is, there was no strong distinction between
a regional airline and any other airline. This changed with the
introduction of long-range aircraft, which led to the development
of the flag carrier airlines, such as
British Overseas Airways
Corporation and
Trans-Canada
Airlines. As the flag carriers grew in importance with
increasing long-range passenger traffic, the smaller airlines found
a niche flying passengers over short hops to the flag carrier's
airport. This arrangement was eventually formalized, forming the
feeder airlines.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, war surplus designs, notably the
DC-3, were replaced by much more capable
turboprop or
jet-powered designs like the
Fokker F27 Friendship or
BAC One-Eleven. This extended the range of
the regionals dramatically, causing a wave of consolidations
between the now overlapping airlines.
In the early 1990s, much more advanced turboprop-powered, fuel
efficient, and passenger friendly
DC-3 type
replacement projects such as the 19 passenger
Embraer/FMA CBA 123 Vector and
the 34 seat
Dornier 328 were undertaken,
but met little financial success, partly due to economic downturn
in the airline industry resulting from the outbreak of hostilities
when
Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Many of
the regional airlines operating turboprop equipment such as
Delta's regional sister Comair airlines in the United States
set the course for bypassing entirely the regional
turboprops as they became the first to transition to an all-jet
regional jet
fleet. To a lesser extent in Europe and the United Kingdom
this transition, to notably the Embraer or Canadair designs,
was well advanced by the late 1990s. This evolution towards
jet equipment, brought the independent regional airlines into
direct competition with the major airlines, forcing additional
consolidation.
Although regional airlines in the United States are often viewed as
small, not particularly lucrative "no name" subsidiaries of the
mainline airlines, in terms of revenue, many would be designated
major airline carrier status but they
do not qualify for this status since the aircraft they operate
generally seat less than 100 people.
Beginning around 1985, a number of trends has been apparent.
Regional aircraft are getting larger, regional aircraft are getting
faster, and regional aircraft are flying longer ranges. Most
recently regional aircraft in the US have been getting slightly
more comfortable with the addition of better
ergonomically designed
aircraft cabins, and the addition of varying
travel classes aboard these aircraft.
From small, less than 50-seat "single-class cabin"
turboprop, to
turbofan
regional jet
equipment, present day regional airlines provide
aircraft such as the higher capacity
CRJ700,
CRJ900,
CRJ1000 series of aircraft and the
somewhat larger fuselage
Embraer
E-Jets. Some of these newer aircraft are capable of flying
longer distances with comfort levels that rival and surpass the
regional airline equipment of the past.
Historically important United States regional airlines
In the
United
States, regional airlines were an important building block
of today's passenger air system. The U.S. Government
encouraged the forming of regional airlines to provide services
from smaller communities to larger towns, where air passengers
could connect to a larger network.
The first United States regional airline
(then called a commuter airline) was Wright Airlines, founded by aviation legend
Gerald Weller in Cleveland, Ohio
. The airline was based at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront
Airport
, becoming the airport's first commercial
carrier. Though airlines had come and gone from Burke
over the years, Wright Airlines
endured, and by the time the airline declared bankruptcy in the
late 1980s, it was appropriately the last commercial airline to
leave Burke Lakefront
Airport. (Cleveland's commercial traffic has since been consolidated at
the city's larger Cleveland
Hopkins International Airport
).
Some examples of the original regional airlines sanctioned by the
Civil Aeronautics Board in
the 1940s and 1950s include:
Of the airlines listed above, none survives today. Some airlines
use these names today; however, they are not the direct successors
to the original airlines.
Since the passing of the
Airline Deregulation Act in 1978,
the US federal government has maintained a desire to continue
support of the regional airline sector and to ensure many of the
smaller and more isolated
rural communities
remain connected to air services and this is encouraged with the
Essential Air Service program
and its goal of making air travel within the reach of every
American.This extremely limited program
subsidizes the smallest of regional airline
service to smaller U.S.
communities and
suburban centers with the aim of
maintaining outlying areas to the economically vital
air transportation grid and guarantees
that selected smaller communities are afforded year-round regional
airline services.
An alternative to some regional airline service may be the new
Small Aircraft
Transportation System initiative in conjunction with
general aviation and
VLJs (very light jets). With the introduction of
air taxi VLJs, city pair
links to smaller communities lacking regional connections could
become more common.
Regional airlines today
North America
Many large airlines, especially in
North
America, have established operational relationships with one or
more regional airline companies. Their aircraft often use the
aircraft livery for the company they
are operating flights for. These airlines can be
subsidiaries of the major airline or fly under a
code sharing agreement. Examples would
be the fully owned
AMR Corporation's
American Eagles Holdings
Corporation regional subsidiaries "American Eagle Airlines" and
Executive Airlines which fly
under the similar American Eagle brand, along with
ACE Aviation Holdings subsidiary
Air Canada Jazz.
Characteristics of Regional Airlines
- Regional air taxi airline (carriers) fly and
operate a fleet of aircraft with up to 9 passenger seats[44782], and may or may not operate with
its own airline brand or identity. Most usually aircraft are
routed via the point-to-point
on-demand or limited schedule transit models of aircraft
routing.[44783]
- Regional commuter airline (carriers) fly and
operate with their own ICAO or IATA codes, their own call sign,
with a fleet of aircraft with 9-19 passenger seats, no flight
attendant, non-stand up cabins, and function with or
without an individual identity and brand, even
though an individually operating certificated regional airline
company. In many instances, the regional commuter airline may be
owed by a conglomerate
airline holding company, or may be a
completely independent and individually owned regional commuter
airline company. Most usually aircraft are routed via the point-to-point transit models of
aircraft routing.[44784]
- Regional feeder-airline (carriers) fly and
operate with their own ICAO or IATA codes, their own call sign, and
fly and operate aircraft with 9-99 passenger seats,
without an individual identity or brand,
even though an individually operating certificated regional feeder
airline company. In many instances, the regional feeder airline may
be owed by a conglomerate airline holding company, or may be a
completely independent and individually owned regional feeder
airline company. Most usually aircraft are routed via the hub-and-spoke model of
aircraft routing.[44785]
- Regional airline carriers are federally
operating certificated airlines which operate their own fleet of
aircraft with their own brand, ICAO or IATA code, and their own
call sign, upon a fleet of aircraft with 9-99 seats and always
include at least one fleet of aircraft which requires a flight attendant. Typically aircraft are
routed upon both the hub-and-spoke and the
point-to-point transit models
of aircraft routing.[44786]
- Airline carriers operate their own fleet of
aircraft with their own brand and identity, ICAO or IATA code,
and their own call sign. Federally operating certificated
regional airlines[44787] are considered airlines.
- Major airline carriers operate
their own fleet of aircraft with their own brand and identity, ICAO
or IATA code, their own call sign, and operate at least one fleet
of aircraft with more than 99 passengers upon their federal
operating certificate. Major airlines have revenues greater than $1
billion[44788] U.S. dollars in revenue during a fiscal year.
Regional airlines are never considered major airlines although in
many instances, the regional airline may be owed by a conglomerate
airline holding company, and have revenues greater than $1 billion
U.S. dollars in revenue during a fiscal year.[44789][44790]
United States regional brands
Larger airline
holding companies, to
improve their market penetration, rely on operators of smaller
aircraft to provide service or added frequency service to some
airports.
Such airlines, often operating in
code-share arrangements with mainline airlines,
often completely repaint
[44791] their aircraft fleet in the mainline
airline's sub-brand livery. For example, Continental Connection
regional airline partner
CommutAir paints
its entire fleet in
Continental
Connection colors. On the other hand, regional airline
Gulfstream International
Airlines paints none of its aircraft in Continental Connection
colors. Pinnacle Airlines Corporation, owner of regional airline
Colgan Air, paints some aircraft in their
own
Colgan Air colors, as well as some in
the colors of
Continental
Connection,
US Airways
Express, and
United Express, with
whom it has contractual agreements.
Hyannis Air Service, owners of regional airline
Cape Air, is also a
Continental Connection code-share
partner for
Continental
Micronesia, but at the same time runs a sub-branded fleet of
aircraft for itself and Hyannis Air Service but under its own brand
name of
Nantucket Airlines. Many
airline passengers find all this sub-branding very confusing, while
many other airline passengers are content to think they are on a
mainline or flagship airline's aircraft, while in actuality they
are far from it. As described this sub-branding is pretty
consistent throughout the airline industry of the United States,
with all the regional airlines, mainline airlines, and the regional
airline holding companies, as well as the mainline airlines holding
companies participating.
Historically, one of the first independently owned and managed
airlines in the entire world that was to rebrand its flying in
another larger airlines image and colour scheme was
Air
Alpes of France. During 1974, Air Alpes painted its newly
delivered short range feeder airliner regional jets into the colors
of Air France. The success of the "rebranding" or "pseudo branding"
of a much smaller airline into the name recognition of a much
larger one soon became clear as passenger numbers soared at Air
Alpes, and it was soon decided to paint other aircraft such as the
Fokker F-27 into full Air France colours
as well.
Among some of the more well-known
advertising sub-brands used by the larger
mainline airlines in North America
are:
Among some of the lesser known smaller advertising brand used by
the regional airlines and their regional airlines
parent company are listed below. Many of
these airlines have had contentious histories as has often been
discussed in detail within the context of the
d/b/a sub-brand or brands individual sections dealing
with their holding companies or certificated airlines.
- go!
- go!Express
- a regional airline brand, used in a codeshare arrangement by
regional airline Mokulele Airlines
for Mesa Air Group's, Mesa Airlines
airline division known as go!
- PWExpress
- a regional airline brand of the regional airline named Pacific Wings, IATA code (LW) which is owned
by Pacific Air Holdings company.
- New Mexico Airlines
- a regional airline brand of the regional airline named Pacific
Wings, IATA code (LW) which is owned by Pacific Air Holdings
company. New Mexico Airlines was set up to take over the Air
Midwest flying dropped by Mesa Air Group
- Mesa
- a regional airline brand used by the regional airline Air Midwest, a subsidiary for the regional
airline holding company Mesa Air
Group
Cessna 402C of
Hyannis Air
Service - Cape Air
United States regional airline holdings companies
Many small regional airlines have grown substantially, usually
through the use of virtual mergers by use of the regional airline
holding company as pioneered earlier by
AMR Corporation in 1982. AMR created the
AMR Eagle Holding Corporation which
unified its wholly owned
American Eagle Airlines and
Executive Airlines under one division,
but still maintained the regionals
operating certificates and personnel
separate from each other and
American
Airlines.Among the more significant of these airline holding
companies are.
European regional airlines
European regional airlines serve the
intra-continental sector in
Europe. They
connect cities to major airports and to other cities, avoiding the
need for passengers to make transfers.
In the
British
Isles
for example, BA
CityFlyer a regional subsidiary of British Airways uses the
basic Chatham
Dockyard Union Flag livery of its parent company. In a slightly
different category
ExpressJet
Airlines another regional carrier, but one which is
independently owned and managed, although its 205 aircraft fleet
operates in the marketing
brand of
Continental Airlines, Inc.,
Continental Express. In these roles, all
of the preceding airlines are operated primarily to bring
passengers to the major hubs, where they will connect for longer
distance flights on the
national
airlines also known as
flagship
carriers's, larger aircraft. The smallest regional carriers
have become known as feeder airlines. The separate corporate
structure allows the company to operate under different pay
schedules, typically paying much less than their
mainline owners.
Some of Europe's regional airlines are subsidiaries of national air
carriers, though there remains a strong
entrepreneurial sector of independents. They
are based on business models ranging from the traditional full
service airline to
low cost
carriers. Innovations include one where the passenger is
required to join a membership club before being allowed to
fly.
Some examples of European regional airlines include:
See also
References
- Trans States Airlines :: Press Release May 24,
2005
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