Delta Air Lines Expands CRJ-550 Service

Delta Air Lines is expanding its Bombardier CRJ-550 operations to a third hub as the customer-friendly aircraft debuts in Detroit.

Spacious CRJ-550 Arrives at Detroit For Delta Air Lines

Delta’s CRJ-500 aircraft offers a spacious configuration onboard:

10 first class seats
20 Comfort+ seats (extra legroom economy Class seats)
20 main cabin seats

Already this aircraft is utilized on several routes from Minneapolis (MSP) and Salt Lake City (SLC). Now Delta is adding this aircraft to Detroit (DTW) with service to six cities within the state of Michigan:

Alpena (APN) – October 2024
Iron Mountain (IMT) – October 2024
Sault Ste. Marie (YAM) – October 2024
Escanaba (ESC) – November 2024
Pellston (PLN) – November 2024
Marquette (MQT) – January 2025

United Airlines was first to introduce the CRJ-550, which is essentially a 70-seat aircraft (CRJ-700) with only 50-seats installed onboard, including a large first class cabin, extra-legroom economy class cabin, and large storage areas for full-sized carry-on bags.

The point of this aircraft is not simply to provide extra space and comfort to passengers onboard, but to address scope clause limits negotiated into pilot contracts that limit the ratio of regional jets operated by subsidiaries like SkyWest to mainline aircraft.

In the case of Delta (and United), regional aircraft with more than 50 seats fall under that clause, hence the introduction of the CRJ-550 model. While not the most efficient jet in terms of maximizing revenue per available seat mile, offering a comfortable aircraft compared to the “devil’s chariot” 50-seat CRJ-200 in an all economy-class configuration makes a huge difference in terms of leaving an impression of quality and that can build loyalty beyond the flight itself.

I’m not a fan of pilot scope clauses in general, but I do like the fruit of those agreements…I do go out of my way to fly on these regional jets versus other more densely configured ones.

image: Caribb / Flickr