Are the days of the "big jets" numbered

[Rick1128]

If you can't believe it can happen, look at what has happened to the US maritime industry since WWII. There are almost no US flagged ship anymore. And we used to be a major maritime power.

Right now a non-US flagged ship can carry passengers and/or cargo from one US port to another. Once foreigh flagged air carriers can do that, you airline guys might as well put in for retirement.

 

[Menace]

RJ's

I think there has to be limit on how many RJ's an airport can support. Either we keep bigger jets or the major city's will have to build hundreds of new gates to accomodate all of the little ones. Has anyone been in O'Hare lately? ACA has more RJ's than I've seen anywhere and they have nowhere to park. I've heard that they have sat in the penalty box for up to 4 hours waiting for a gate. I know there has been talk of remote parking for them where they will bus the passengers to the airplanes at the cargo terminal or someplace similar.
I think there will always be larger jets.

-Menace

 

[active_herk]

One quick reminder:

Before 9/11, everyone was wondering how we would be able to support the increases of air traffic which were being predicted for the 21st century. The news media was constantly telling us how there "weren't enough runways", "we need bigger aircraft", "we need to revamp our ATC system to handle more air traffic", etc. Load factors were at an all time high with all the "big" airplanes operating. I can even remember hearing a news story where one airport (I can't remember which one) was maxed out on slot times and was considering a measure where no more commuter sized aircraft would be allowed in or out. In fact, they were even thinking about not allowing all the present commuter aircraft in. This was not to slight the commuters, but was seen as a way of maximizing the number of passengers which could be moved in a finite amount of time.

Unfortunately, the events of 9/11 coupled with a slowing economy has made some changes for the present time in the airline industry. While we are now seeing an increase in RJ service over bigger aircraft, I believe that this industry is cyclical in nature, and one day we will be back to where we were before Sept 11. I haven't been around the airlines as long as many of the members of this board have I'm sure, but I imagine they have seen the good times as well as the bad times numerous times throughout their career. We are now in a slump which eventually will pass.