Regional airline

Decades before the advent of jet airliners and high-speed, long-range air service, commercial aviation was structured similarly to rail transport networks.

In this era, technological limitations on air navigation and propeller-driven aircraft performance imposed strict constraints on the potential length of each flight; some routes covered less than 100 miles (160 km).

T-A-T's transcontinental "Lindbergh Line" became America's first contiguous coast-to-coast air service, and it ushered in a new era of major airlines expanding to operate networks with large footprints.

So when reading historical sources, it’s important to understand that the term "regional airline" has migrated greatly over time.

[2] As flag carriers grew to fill the demand of long-range passenger traffic, new and small airlines found niches flying between short and under-served routes to-and-from major airports and more rural destinations.

In the United States, regional airlines were an important building block of today's passenger air system.

It is common in the U.S. to incorrectly associate aircraft size with the Department of Transportation's designation of major, national, and regional airline.

To be clear there is no distinction in the Department of Transportation definition of major, national and regional airlines by aircraft size.

Some of these newer aircraft are capable of flying longer distances with comfort levels that rival and surpass the regional airline equipment of the past.

[citation needed] In the early 1990s, much more advanced turboprop-powered, fuel efficient, and passenger friendly DC-3 type replacement projects such as the 19 passenger Embraer/FMA CBA 123 Vector and the 34 seat Dornier 328 were undertaken, but met little financial success, partly due to economic downturn in the airline industry resulting from the outbreak of hostilities when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

To a lesser extent in Europe and the United Kingdom this transition, to notably the Embraer or Canadair designs, was well advanced by the late 1990s.

[5] On Feb 12th, 2010, a year after the crash of Colgan flight 3407, Frontline premiered its WGA Award-winning exposé on the industry entitled "Flying Cheap".

In the program, reporter Miles O'Brien questioned how the impact of low salaries are having on pilot psyches and how safe this could be for the flying public.

When asked to respond to the question, Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association,[6] told Frontline that, "...there are many other people who earn less money than that and work more days in these communities that can afford it and do it and do it responsibly.

This vision failed to materialize due to its primary focus on rural mobility and a lack of clear and viable business case.

[9] With the introduction of air taxi services and very light jets, city pair links to smaller communities lacking regional connections could become more common.

[10] In some parts of the world, regional airlines face competition from high-speed rail and also coach (bus) services with airlines sometimes replacing feeder services through air rail alliances and contracts with bus companies (e.g., Landline between Philadelphia International Airport and Atlantic City International Airport).

Some of them focus on Canadian Arctic and First Nations communities, while others operate regional flights on behalf of a larger carrier, similar to their American counterparts.

For example, BA CityFlyer a regional subsidiary of British Airways uses the basic Chatham Dockyard Union Flag livery of its parent company and flies between domestic and European cities.

Some of Europe's regional airlines are subsidiaries of national air carriers, though there remains a strong entrepreneurial sector of independents.

To create a common tie and what appeared to be seamless to the air traveler, major carriers marketed in advertising and soon had much smaller airlines paint their small and what was often described as puddle-jumper aircraft, in the image and branding colors of the much larger mainline partner.

Over time these regional aircraft grew in size as airline hubs expanded and competition dwindled among the major carriers.