tail wheel. I believe it is nothing to do with passenger number certification but the number of passengers on board. For example I remember an AN B762 freighter departing with 12 passengers (all staff) and nil cabin crew. I think the limit at the time was 15 passengers.
NZ operates on the number of seats installed theory, not actual punters carried or max design seat capacity.
In NZ, the AirNSN Dash-8's are configured with 50 pax seats to meet the 1 F/A requirement, despite being able to install 56. If they carry a piss poor load of 12 punters then they still require the 1 x F/A as they have 50 seats installed. Same with the ATR which requires 2 F/A regardless of load. We once carried 6 pax one early morning on a public holiday.
For staff travel purposes, the jump seat on the Dash 8 is not avail to staff if the cabin is full as this makes the pax count 51 and therefore requires the 2nd F/A. The jump seat is avail to staff who are current with Dash8 EP's I believe as they can classed as supernumerary crew.
S2K