Airline downsizing shifts passengers to smaller regional jets

By Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Fri, Dec 4, 2009 (3 a.m.)

One aspect of airline capacity downsizing really hasn’t affected travel to and from McCarran International Airport — and hopefully that trend will continue.

With legacy carriers United, American, Delta (merging with Northwest), Continental and US Airways cutting flights to bring capacity closer to demand, small regional carriers have been called upon to fly some of their routes.

That allows airlines to maintain almost the same number of flights that they have had, but shifts passengers to partner carriers. That doesn’t sit well with some consumer advocates who say many customers aren’t realizing that although they book a flight on a big carrier, they may end up flying with another airline.

That also means customers are expecting to fly on a big jet only to discover they are on a small regional jet or even a turboprop plane. That’s leading some consumer groups to demand airlines fully disclose when their flights are being farmed out to a partner and what types of aircraft are being used.

Barbara Peterson had a terrific piece about this in the December Conde Nast Traveler, exploring a number of issues ranging from the experience level of flight crews on regional carriers versus major airlines, the safety records of regional operators and the comfort of the planes. Some airlines abdicate their responsibilities to customers to the partner airline, leaving passengers in no man’s land when things go wrong.

Not all regional jets have been created equally with some having considerably smaller seats and overhead bin space and fewer amenities. But then, there are some that are as comfortable and roomy as a Boeing 737 or Airbus 320.

According to the Official Airline Guide, regional airlines fly more than half the departures at airports such as Chicago’s O’Hare; New York’s LaGuardia; Milwaukee; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and Memphis, Tenn. They fly about 45 percent of the flights at the nation’s busiest airport: Atlanta’s Hartsfield International; and more than one-third of the flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International.

But the story is quite different in Las Vegas. According to the guide’s statistics, only 2.5 percent of McCarran’s flights are on smaller aircraft. Only Orlando, Fla., at 2.3 percent has a smaller percentage of regional aircraft departures among the nation’s busiest airports.

Incidentally, the length for the average regional airline flight has increased dramatically, from 274 miles in 1999 to 461 miles in 2008, according to the guide.

Which carriers have regional airline partners in Las Vegas?

McCarran’s November statistics show 192 flights a week on aircraft categorized as commuter operations. Most — 110 flights — are operated by Mesa Airlines, operating as US Airways Express, flying 86-passenger, twin-engine Canadair CRJ9 jets. The CRJ9 has four seats per row, two on each side of the aisle.

Among US Airways Express routes from Las Vegas are flights to Orange County, Calif., and Los Angeles International.

SkyWest Airlines, which has 287 planes in its fleet, operates as United Express as a partner with United Airlines and Delta Connection with Delta. The airline flies 50-passenger CRJ 200 jets as well as 66-passenger CRJ 700s, both twin-engine jets with four-across seating.

SkyWest also flies 48 flights a week as United Express on Embraer 120 Brasilia turboprop planes with routes to Palm Springs and Fresno, Calif. Those planes seat 30 passengers with two seats on one side of the aisle and one on the other — a tight fit for large or tall passengers.

Alaska Airlines’ commuter partner, Horizon Air, is another carrier that flies daily turboprop flights from Las Vegas to Santa Rosa, Calif. Horizon flies a 74-passenger Bombardier Q400 on the route.

One of the most comfortable of the commuter jets is JetBlue’s Embraer E190 jet, which seats 98 passengers. It looks like a smaller version of a 737 with twin engines on the wings, but instead of six-across seating, it’s four across in seats slightly larger than those on 737s.

One other airline flying to Las Vegas uses a commuter partner — Aerolitoral S.A. de C.V., a partner of Aeromexico, flying as Aeromexico Connect. The company uses 50-passenger regional jets on three flights a week.

Although avoiding a small jet is relatively easy from McCarran, it may not be when going to some destinations east of the Mississippi.

Peterson’s article offers some “New Rules of Flying” if you want to avoid some of the discomforts of smaller aircraft. Her rules:

• Be sure to bring food. Regional flights can be four hours or longer, and the airlines don’t sell or offer food or snacks on board.

• Always be conscious of what type of plane you’ll be flying to avoid any surprises at flight time. Most airline Web sites will tell you what kind of aircraft you’re flying and most of the time you can view seating configurations and other details by doing online searches.

• Don’t assume you’ll be able to take the carry-on luggage you take on a standard flight. It’s possible you’ll be told at the gate that your bag has to be checked. And when that happens, the airline isn’t supposed to charge a fee.

• Peterson recommends consulting seatguru.com before selecting your seat. The Web site identifies airlines and lists the various aircraft in their fleets. Once you’ve found your aircraft type, you get a layout of the cabin with a key indicating good seats, bad seats and seats with some drawbacks. It’s a nice guidance tool.

• Although it’s possible to avoid flying a regional airline, it isn’t always easy. As a rule the bigger the aircraft, the smoother the ride.

For Las Vegas travelers, getting somewhere without boarding a regional airline is easier because the 32 carriers that do business at McCarran have nonstop flights to an incredible 132 destinations.

It isn’t always easy to find those if you stick to the big travel Web sites such as Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity. It’s not a bad idea to visit one or all of those (or a few smaller ones that I haven’t mentioned), but it’s also a good idea to check Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air’s sites, whose flights aren’t listed on the big travel sites.

Check out whether flying to a suburban airport is advantageous. For example, lots of people look first at flying to Los Angeles International when they could consider Long Beach on JetBlue; Burbank on JetBlue or Southwest; or Ontario, Calif., or Orange County on Southwest.

Similar options can be found when flying to the Bay Area (Oakland or San Jose instead of San Francisco), Chicago (Midway) and Washington (Dulles, Reagan National or Baltimore-Washington).

Although today’s airline economics are offering fewer choices to travelers, doing your homework can result in a more comfortable journey.

Can lawmakers help?

When Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways announced plans to close its hub in Boston, Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Ed Markey, both Massachusetts Democrats, fired off letters to US Airways CEO Doug Parker, asking him to reconsider.

Boston could lose as many as 400 jobs because of the cutbacks.

“Closing the Boston hub could hurt thousands of travelers, with a potential ripple effect through airports nationwide and the needless loss of hundreds of jobs,” Kerry said in his letter. “I strongly urge US Air to reconsider its decision and keep the Boston hub up and running both now and down the road.”

The situation is similar, but even more dire for Las Vegas, which counts on major carriers such as US Airways to deliver customers to resorts. The airline hasn’t said how many of its 880 jobs here will disappear.

US Airways, once the busiest carrier at McCarran when it operated as America West Airlines, is chopping its local flights from 64 daily round trips to 36 by the end of February, ending nonstop service to 13 destinations.

When the airline completes its schedule changes, 99 percent of its service would connect cities to its hub operations in Phoenix, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C.

If they haven’t done it already, Nevada’s lawmakers should send a similar letter to US Airways, especially since the Las Vegas economy is so dependent on the airlines to bring in customers.

It’s possible that US Airways would ignore the pleas, but expressing that concern will remind that airline and others how important they are to us.

Richard N. Velotta covers tourism, technology and small business for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4061 or at rick.velotta@lasvegassun.com.