American brings again the CRJ-200 on 10 regional routes

One of the vital uncomfortable regional jets is making a giant comeback at American Airways.

The Fort Price-based provider is reintroducing the 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 on choose regional routes starting in April 2023, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by an airline spokesperson.

For now, the plan requires American to deploy the CRJ-200 on the next 10 routes from Chicago, as you possibly can see within the desk and map beneath. Whereas American is just scheduling 10 routes on the outset, count on that quantity to develop within the coming months because the airline provides extra of those jets into its American Eagle fleet.

The CRJ-200 is outfitted with simply 50 economic system seats, and it gives one of the vital cramped experiences within the sky. The overhead bins are barely giant sufficient for a backpack, and taller passengers must thoughts their heads when strolling up and down the aisle.

Seats are organized in a decent 2-2 configuration, and there is not a lot in the best way of facilities. Aside from a small bathroom, do not count on to entry Wi-Fi or cost your gadgets whereas in flight. There is no first-class cabin, and the bulkhead and exit row economic system seats aren’t all that comfy, both.

That mentioned, all of American’s new CRJ-200 routes are brief, averaging about 225 miles every. American’s regional affiliate SkyWest Airways final operated the CRJ-200 for American Eagle in June 2020, Cirium schedules present.

For American, bringing again the CRJ-200 is a strategic transfer to make sure it may possibly proceed providing a sturdy regional community amid the nationwide pilot scarcity.

“American has been — and can proceed to be — aggressive in main the business in tackling this problem, however it would take a while earlier than the difficulty is resolved,” mentioned Derek Kerr, American’s chief monetary officer, in an inner memo when the tie-up with Air Wisconsin was first unveiled.

The provider introduced in August that it could as soon as once more accomplice with regional airline Air Wisconsin to supply CRJ-200 service out of its Chicago hub.

American’s new capability buy settlement (because it’s referred to as within the business) with Air Wisconsin covers as much as 60 CRJ-200s, with the potential for including extra plane, together with the bigger CRJ-700, down the road if demand warrants.

This is not the primary time that American Eagle has partnered with Air Wisconsin. This regional affiliate beforehand operated as US Airways Specific from August 2005 to October 2015; it then operated as American Eagle from October 2015 to February 2018, when US Airways and American Airways operations have been mixed.

Starting in March 2018, Air Wisconsin began flying completely for United Specific, centered totally on brief routes from O’Hare and Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD).

As a part of the shift to American, United’s unique settlement with Air Wisconsin will finish early subsequent yr. Whereas American brings on extra 50-seat regional jets into its fleet, United is doing precisely the other.

The Chicago-based provider plans to section out all 50-seat operations as a part of its United Subsequent progress technique, which requires bigger narrow-body plane that function first-class cabins on home routes.