Look at Rex, who now have ~ 52 Saab 340's. How long since they've made a loss ?
Rex makes profit through economy of scale, a new start up with a Saab will probably have operating costs per seat 30% higher. Rex has an extremely good working relationships with Saab, GE and numerous other parts suppliers, they do their own maintenance and own the whole fleet outright. I would guess Rex can operate a 340 for less than a leased 1900.
Don't they operate some routes where the state government subsidises the fare? Also aren't some routes controlled as to who can operate them? If that's the case then it's a bit easier to make money. None of that over here.
Although these routes make money, I'd say the main profit is from the competitive major regional routes. Apart from the Queensland routes the few others are non-subsidised, just exclusive rights.
A better example of what can be done with a Saab fleet is Silver airlines, all the majors had abandoned a lot of small routes in the US. Silver has shown they are still viable with the Saab and is expanding rapidly.