Contesting the ABX market
DJ's two flights per day are a 'toe in the water' exercise to test the 'temperature'. Krusty 34 in an earlier post was correct when he said the only way to seriously contest the ABX (and Port Macquarie) markets would be for DJ to overnight an ERJ in those ports to chase the business market, which would require a large investment decision as the first flight location of an RPT aircraft in part determines the overall daily flight schedule. With many more ERJ's on order however anything is possible!
Any scale up of services in either the ABX or PMQ market will spark a price war with the encumbents. Customers will win out in the short term through cheaper short-term fares and frequency. The losing operator typically will have highest costs and be unable to sustain deeply discounted fares for an extended period. Over short stage lengths such as SY-ABX and SY-PMQ Props beat Jets on costs every time!!
Chock to Chock time ABX-SY-ABX for the props averages 65 minutes so there is no real saving on such a short sector with a Jet and thus any 'contest' will come down to fare price and schedule frequency! QED!!