Please enlighten me on the ridiculous contracts Delta has with Mesaba, Compass, and Comair? Could yoiu please give me the guaanteed profit figure (us dollars will be fine) that Mesaba, Compass, Comair made off of Delta with the contract you are referring to? If Delta was paying for the gas then what "higher" gas price were they paying...did they hedge for mainline and regionals seperatly?
Also I'd be carful about wishing the rj's gone. I mean really, who has subsidised the "major" airline pilot pay the past 20 years? I'll give you a hint, it's those 17.00 an hour f/o's that have been working under your so called ridiculous contracts for the last 20 years. Speaking of which seeing's your so enlightened on the economics side of the airline buisness. If the contracts with the regional partners were so bad then why didn't they get out of them during anytime in the last 20 years...when Comair took their first rj.
The reason regionals, and rj's exsist is easy. They make money PERIOD. If they did not Delta, like any other buisness would have gotten rid of the "cost centers."
I'm not a fan of the rj, but your arguments are sometimes a bit hypocritical. The Rj's, turboprops, have a place, a place in which your dc can't be successful.
Also to disprove your point about a dc9 morning noon and night. Delta already has a place like that. it's called Memphis. Last time I was through there I saw a bunch more rj's than anything else. According to you it should be easy for Delta to just replace all that lift with a dc9 or bigger. The dc9 I took to ORD a few nights ago from Memphis with 40 people on probable made a whole lot more money that a CRJ9 or EMB175...DO you agree?