Death of the RJ

[George Tower]

I know much has been made of the northwards direction of the oil price as of late but it does seem that the era of "cheap" oil is over.
What with China and India having new found propserity and, Iran hell bent on a new era of fundamentalism, and the Palestinians having elected a bunch of terrorists to power I think there's more than a few good reasons to say that $20 a barrell is long over.
All of which leads me to my question is the era of the RJ over - as an example I look at an airline like flybe replacing the 146 with the Q400. Now Bombardier have cancelled their C-series program so is the writing on the wall for RJs and will props deliver the profits.
I'd be interested in comments on comparing these different types of aircraft e.g operting costs, performance issues, particularly hot and high (may be not so relevant to European ops)
Rgds
GT

[MarkD]

bring back $18/bbl oil and RJs will come with them!

[chiglet]

GT,
Are you [specifically] targeting the BAe146/RJ whatever, or the "Generic" idea of the "Regional Jet" ? :confused:
Embraer [E135/145/170/190]
Bombardier [CRJ200/700/900]
Airbus [A318/319]
"Seem" to be doing OK, as do Boeing with their 7/800 series
watp,iktch

[WHBM]

Embraer [E135/145/170/190]
Bombardier [CRJ200/700/900]
Airbus [A318/319]
"Seem" to be doing OK, as do Boeing with their 7/800 series
watp,iktch
The Bombardier CRJ200, once a hot seller, is out of production, it was all quite sudden, A318 sales never took off, and the other smaller types have sales well down. However the larger types quoted, like the A319 and the 737-700, continue in full production unabated.

There is a feeling that the US commuter carriers overall bought far too many 50-seater jets and they are about to flood onto the secondhand market.

[MarkD]

WHBM

Funny BBD stopped CRJ2 production right before Independence went belly-up. Not saying they knew mind... just a very good nose for trouble :}

J-Air (JAL subsidiary) did sign for another CRJ2 recently but this may be taking a frame from someone who doesn't want it - I don't know what the delivery timescale is.

That said, turboprop biz is (comparatively) booming, which is good news for Bombardier Downsview... if BBD HQ doesn't shift what's left of production to Quebec or Mexico :ugh:

[beaucaire]

Bombardier have indicated their intentions to enter the capital of Sukhoi via Alenia -that speaks for itself....
The RRJ-95 will become a killer - many european airlines have indicated their intentions to consider to buy the RRJ- Air France ,Iberia,SAS,Austrian...
Not to speak from Sibir, who placed an order for 50 units as launching customer.

[George Tower]

In the process of doing some research recently regarding a project for southern africa, I was led to look more closely at the performance capabilities and economies of several types of aircraft.

The Q400 appears to be the huge winner with the current price of oil being what it is. I mentioned the 146 as an example of a very capable aircraft whose downfall now may be the fact that it has four donkeys doing what you can do with two props. Given that Flybe have replaced a lot of their 146s with Q400 I'd be interested in comments from pax and pilots as to which aircraft they prefer and also as to the performance/economics of the two aircraft.

As to the Sukhoi program I know little about that....one presumes that it will just be straight fight between them and Embraer for the 90 - 110 seat market. But for the <70 seat regional market I seem to think that now the cost of fuel can means that props are king in this sector.

[Ops Bangle]

beaucaire wrote "Not to speak from Sibir, who placed an order for 50 units as launching customer"

In Flight International:

Sibir drops RRJ plan after specification change

Russia’s Sibir has abandoned plans to order the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Russian Regional Jet (RRJ), citing the fact that the aircraft’s revised specification no longer meets its requirement.