Small Jets play Big Role...
Posted on Fri, Jul. 11, 2003
Small jets play big role
Plane size may limit options during delays
By Erika D. Smith
Beacon Journal staff writer
Mike Cardew, ABJ
Business traveler Leslie Jacobs checks the Continental Arrival/Departure
screens before heading off to catch his flight to Minneapolis at Cleveland
Hopkins Airport.
The skies have been anything but friendly for travelers so far this month.
A string of storms sprinkled flight delays and cancellations across the Midwest
this week, and airports and airlines are blaming the usual suspects: packed
planes, chain-reaction backups at major hubs, canceled connecting flights,
grounded planes and runway traffic jams.
But there may be a new member of that lineup -- regional jets.
When bad weather blows in without warning and flights are canceled, some
experts say a fleet of smaller planes can make it harder to accommodate
displaced passengers on short notice. Carriers may not have as much
freedom to put fliers on different planes because a 50-seat regional jet would
fill up faster than a 124-seat 737.
``There may have been more flexibility in the past,'' said Jean Prentice, owner
of Robert Prentice Travel Bureau in Akron.
Under normal circumstances, having a fleet of regional jets and large,
mainline planes works well. Many carriers, such as Continental Airlines, have
been building their army of regional planes in recent years.
``They're trying to match the size of the airplanes to the size of the market,''
said David S. Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association.
These snappy planes, which cruise as high and as fast as their larger
counterparts, have been swarming into the nation's airports since the
mid-1990s. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport recently built Concourse
D primarily for regional jets.
In a stagnant air travel market prompted by the Sept. 11 attacks, smaller jets
have replaced turboprops for short trips and retired Boeing 737s on
half-empty, money-losing routes. Book a seat on a domestic flight with a major
airline and the odds are good that you'll end up on a small jet operated by a
regional affiliate, like Continental's ExpressJet.
According to the Regional Air Service Initiative, departures by regional jets
rose 41 percent between July 2001 and July 2002, while takeoffs by big jets
fell 11 percent. Industry experts say about 1,400 regional jets are flying
worldwide.
In March, Continental Airlines' chief executive said the carrier is switching to
smaller planes at Hopkins because of reduced demand. Bookings were down
20 percent domestically and 40 percent internationally that month, though
business has picked up since then.
``We have to survive,'' Chief Executive Officer Gordon Bethune said. ``We're
not going to go out and lose money providing services that people don't want.
If you don't want it, then fine. We won't give it to you.''
Stempler said that's probably a good philosophy, despite the potential for
problems when storms strike.
``There's one thing worse than having too few seats and that's having no
seats,'' he said. ``Sending in big planes to serve a few people will put an
airline out of business before long.''
But Continental spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said regional planes don't
exacerbate flight delays or cancellations at Hopkins, or any other airport
where the airline operates. Regional jets have merely supplemented, not
replaced, big planes.
The Houston-based airline increased the frequency of flights in markets
where the carrier has a high number of regional planes. That way, when a
storm blows into a popular destination city or an incoming jet is delayed,
passengers have more departing planes to choose from, he said.
Plus, in hub cities like Cleveland, the airline has one to five spare planes
ready to go at any given moment, Johnson said.
When asked whether larger planes are more likely to have empty seats at the
last minute than a regional jet, Johnson responded: ``Not if the airline is doing
its job.'' And Continental is, he said.
ExpressJet, which is 53 percent owned by Continental Airlines, has a fleet of
208 regional jets nationwide and expects to have 224 by the end of the year.
Of the approximately 240 Continental flights that leave Cleveland every day,
about 55 are smaller jets.
``Regional jets are a very efficient way to get people between markets where
there are not enough people to justify the expense of servicing the route with a
large jet,'' Johnson said.
But some passengers don't hold regional jets in such high regard.
Continental flier Leslie Jacobs said he tries hard to avoid the smaller planes.
The Clevelander managed to avoid a flight delay during the thunderstorms
that ripped through the area this week. He scooted into town Sunday, hours
before the chaos.
Back at Hopkins on Thursday to board a small jet bound for Minneapolis,
Jacobs said delays seem to be worse with regional jets.
Joseph Malloy of Philadelphia agreed that storms ``definitely complicate
things,'' but he said he doesn't think regional jets have much to do with delays.
Kris Thelen saw the brunt of this week's storm system in her hometown of
Chicago. Her afternoon flight to New York was delayed for three hours -- but
that wasn't bad.
``There were people in the bar there who had been there since 9 a.m.,'' she
said. ``A family had spent the night.''
Erika D. Smith can be reached at 330-996-3748 or at
ersmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to
this report.
Check out delays at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center:
https://www.fly.faa.gov/FAQ/Airline_Links/airline_links.html.
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