New 30-40 seats regional?

Since 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135 and 34-seat Fairchild Dornier 328JET
entered service in 1999, there has been no new development in this
segment.

Mitsubishi MRJ was orginally planned as a 30-50 seater in 2003 but it
grew up to 70-90 seats in 2005 and it seems no manufacturer is
seriously looking at the 30-40 seat segment at the moment.

Will there be no new development in the 30-40 seat segment in the next
10 years and existing regionals such as Jetstream 31/41, Saab 340,
EMB-120 Brasilia linger on until replaced by larger new planes?

On Sep 12, 2:25 pm, John Doe <j...@doe.org> wrote:
> Hatunen wrote:
> > I'm not sure exactly what your question is, but check out the
> > various Canadair Regional Jets, which have 50 seats and up.
>
> The original 50 seat CRJ has long ago ceased production.  The larger
> CRJ700 ad 900 are still being produced, and a -1000 has recently had its
> first test flight.
>
> The 70 seat Dash-8-400 is now quite popular. For smaller aircraft, the
> turboprops offer significant financial advantages and for short flights,
>  the speed of the -400 isn't that much slower than that of jets. (it is
> faster than previous generations of Dash-8s.)
>
> The -400, with new engines and technology is prefered to the smaller
> -300 because in the end, it costs less to operate.
>
> Airlines seek to lower the cost per passenger and this means using
> larger aircraft where possible.
>
> Bombardier is now moving to develop a 100-130 seat aircraft because this
> si where it says the demand will be.

Larger aircraft's cost per available seat mile (cost divided by the
multiplication of flight distance and seats) should indeed be lower
than smaller aircraft's, but it would be unwise to use a 70-seater for
a route that has less than 30 passengers, I guess. Then the question
is how many routes will have less than 30 passengers per flight in
future?

If all airlines decide to serve routes that generate more than 50
passengers per flight, I believe it could open up opportunities for
other transport means such as air taxi.

On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:25:42 -0400, John Doe <jdoe@doe.org> wrote:

>Hatunen wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure exactly what your question is, but check out the
>> various Canadair Regional Jets, which have 50 seats and up.
>
>The original 50 seat CRJ has long ago ceased production. The larger
>CRJ700 ad 900 are still being produced, and a -1000 has recently had its
>first test flight.
>
>The 70 seat Dash-8-400 is now quite popular. For smaller aircraft, the
>turboprops offer significant financial advantages and for short flights,
> the speed of the -400 isn't that much slower than that of jets. (it is
>faster than previous generations of Dash-8s.)

I flew a -400 last year in Europe and I was impressed. Every bit as
comfortable or even more so than a 737. Noise was minimal (I like the
sound of a prop plane anyway.) and the ride was smooth.

I certainly prefer it to the CRJ clunkers I've ridden in..cramped and
narrow.

Jim P.