Airline partnerships can leave you cramped

By Richard N. Velotta

Monday, Dec. 7, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Among the effects of the economy on the airline industry is major airlines’ increased reliance on small, regional carriers to offset cutbacks in their own flight schedules.

As a result, passengers who book on a legacy airline — United, American, Delta, Continental and US Airways — frequently find themselves unexpectedly being farmed out to smaller carriers that use small regional jets or even turboprop aircraft for the connecting flights.

That trend has prompted some consumer groups to demand that airlines fully disclose their partners and the types of aircraft they use. They voice concerns about the experience level of flight crews on regional carriers versus major airlines, the safety records of regional operators and the comfort of the planes with smaller seats, less bin space and fewer amenities.

As it turns out, very few regional airlines fly out of McCarran International Airport.

According to the Official Airline Guide, regional airlines fly more than half their 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. Among the nation’s busiest airports, only Orlando, Fla., at 2.3 percent, has a smaller percentage of regional aircraft departures.

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.

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 CRJ200 jets as well as 66-passenger CRJ700s, 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.

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 132 destinations.

A version of this story appears in this week’s In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Sun.