Airlines are turning to bigger planes that fit more travelers to handle strong demand.

Source: Airlines answer congested airports and rising costs with bigger planes

Helps reduce costs by enabling existing crews to handle more passengers, and is more fuel efficient too.

We are served by a small airport where most flights are subcontracted to Skywest Airlines (Delta, United, American) or Horizon (Alaska, which also uses Skywest). Due to pilot union contract rules, the regional contracted carriers are restricted to 76 passengers or less. This forces prices to be higher in this market. Instead of flying 4 flights a day to airport X, it would be more cost effective, more fuel efficient, and better for the environment to fly 2 flights per day on larger planes. But the union rules prohibit that when using regional subcontract carriers.

Alaska recently replaced some Skywest flights with an actual Alaska Airlines 737 likely carrying 180 passengers. Hopefully, this trend continues.

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