Whats better?

English Boards Community Support
1

Hi

my airline currently has 12 A320 aircraft and i want to expand to smaller destinations. What tactic is better, Starting a regional arm that operates Q400s and others or just operate within the main airline?

Thanks for the help

2

That really depends on your specific markets and your strategy. A regional arm allows you to "outsource" a maintenance categories. My smallest mainline plane is currently the Boeing 717 and smaller aircraft are operated by subsidiaries so serve specific markets.

Regards

3

Hi

 

my airline currently has 12 A320 aircraft and i want to expand to smaller destinations. What tactic is better, Starting a regional arm that operates Q400s and others or just operate within the main airline?

 

Thanks for the help

A320 is all you have right now?

Then go with your mainline as you can have 3 maint. categories without increasing your maint costs.

4

I have 8 A320s and 4 A321 so yeah only one catergory.

Thanks

5

Keep in mind that turboprops will lower your image a bit.

6

It really depends on your vision and which aircraft-types should be operated by your mainline-company. I evaluated the introduction of Q400s to augment the A32S/MDX-fleet but decided against it. my main reason is that I want to reserve the third category and don´t want to block it by the Q400. For example, I outsourced regional jet-feeder services (CRJ, ERJ, ARJ).

You can also lease smaller A319s to augment your A320/321-fleet to serve smaller markets.

Regards

7

Hi

Thanks for the info. I think was i build up more money i will start a regional carrier and transfer the services over to that.

Thanks for the help

8

The major concern remains your vision and business-strategy which will always be individual. One scenario works for one player while another player would fail. In theory I would operate five maintenance-categories of jetliners within my main airline without a subsidiary for feeder services. There are a number of players who feel comfortable to operate a fleet with five, six or seven maintenance-categories. One aspect at my feeder airline is that (for example) a few BAe Avroliners are needed to serve destinations with rather short runways. Such a small sub-fleet would be uneconomical within my main company. So feel free to look at your visions to develop a network ;) .

9

Hi

Thanks for the info. Well a fair few regional airports around my hubs require smaller aircraft due to the short runways so a regional carrier may be needed due to the subfleet.

Ill think about

Thanks