Q400 will never arrive in this country. It will certainly not replace the ATR which the bean counters love.
Can't think why, the Q400 is cheaper to acquire and cheaper to operate than the ATR. Equally crappy quality though.
A one size fits all solution would never work in the NZ market but of course would be a very sensible idea. Just think about the size of many of the towns served.
Well there was a time when all the regions were served by a 50-seater... the good old F27.
The bigger aircraft can work on thin routes, as they introduce other economies (common type rating, one set of training staff instead of three, one set of spares, etc etc etc). Those economies can easily add up to several million dollars a year. It is no surprise that the rest of the world has already figured this out, while we lag behind, as usual...
