When Delta first announced plans to completely remake its regional fleet, I figured it would take a fair amount of time for it to happen. After all, the airline needed to get rid of more than 200 airplanes while adding about 150 more. Boy, was I wrong. It’s just about done.

I put together a graphic showing what’s happening. This compares where we were at the end of the first quarter 2012 versus where we will be when it’s all done in the next couple years.

Remember, while the plan is in place, this isn’t actually happening overnight. It will take a couple years. Still, the plan is now set, so let’s talk about it.

The 50-Seaters
As you can see, the 50-seat category is the one taking the biggest beating. Comair was shut down so its 30 CRJ-200s are being retired. Pinnacle is in bankruptcy, and Delta has decided that all 140 of the CRJ-200s that it’s operating will go away as well. Meanwhile, SkyWest (including subsidiary ExpressJet) has agreed to cut 66 of its CRJ-200s out.

That leaves 90 of the airplanes with SkyWest. Republic-owned Chautauqua, meanwhile, was at 24 ERJ-145s but has agreed to operate 7 more at least for the next year. So at most, there are a mere 121 50-seaters under contract. That’s incredible, and it’s lower than the 125 that Delta had as its hard ceiling.

The 70-Seaters
The number of 70-seat aircraft in the Delta Connection fleet hasn’t changed but the operators have. When Comair was shut down, 5 of its CRJ-700s were given to SkyWest while 10 were given to GoJet. Meanwhile, GoJet had finished picking up 6 more from SkyWest to get to its steady 22 airplanes along with 6 at sister-airline Compass. That left SkyWest with 60 of the airplanes. Republic-owned Shuttle America rounds out the fleet with 14 EMB-170s. That’s a total of 102.

The 76-Seaters
In the 76-seat range, there are growth plans, but there is also some shifting. Comair’s 13 airplanes plus 16 from Pinnacle were given to SkyWest, most likely to give SkyWest incentive to go ahead and ditch those 66 50-seaters. Meanwhile, Shuttle America stayed steady with 16 EMB-175s while Compass had 36.

Pinnacle saw the greatest change. After losing 16 airplanes to SkyWest, Pinnacle had 41 CRJ-900s in its fleet. Delta has now decided to give an additional 40 CRJ-900s to Pinnacle as part of its growth plan. Pinnacle will now solely be a CRJ-900 operator with 81 total.

That leaves Delta with 193 airplanes in this category, but it has the right to go up to 223 after it adds its last 717 to the mainline fleet. So who will get the last 30? Well, along with that order for 40 CRJ-900s, Delta secured 30 options. I assume that at some point those will be exercised and assigned to one of the remaining four regionals – SkyWest/ExpressJet, Shuttle America, Pinnacle, or GoJet/Compass.

The 110-Seaters
Lastly, we have the new 110-seat category. It was Delta’s deal to buy 88 of these airplanes from Southwest that triggered all these other shifts. Those will start coming in next year and deliveries will take a couple of years. Delta had no airplanes in this category before, but now it will operate 88.

What Does This Mean?
When this is all said and done, things will look much better for travelers. The 50-seaters are small and cramped, and lack amenities that even the slightly bigger aircraft will have. For example, the 50-seaters are all coach. The 70+ seat aircraft will have coach, Economy Comfort (more legroom), and First Class. Oh, and they’ll all have wifi too.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for the 50-seaters. Some communities and routes are going to need airplanes that size, but it’s not nearly as many as airlines originally thought. Most airlines would rather go bigger, and Delta has done that by ordering more CRJ-900s for its regionals.

Now I’ll admit that from a passenger perspective, I was bummed to see Delta grow with CRJ-900s. The Embraer 175s have wider and more comfortable cabins. But I have no doubt that Delta got a screaming deal on those airplanes and money talks.

Personally, I’m most excited about the addition of the 717s. That’s partially because they were built in my backyard here in Long Beach, but I actually do like flying on those airplanes. I certainly like them a LOT more than regional jets.

What’s really interesting is that this change isn’t just impacting Delta. United’s pilots agreed to a very similar deal which will see United remake its fleet as well. And while American is a bit in flux still, it’s expected that we’ll see a similar type of deal no matter whether there’s a merger or not.

The downside is, of course, that with fewer small airplanes, small cities will take a hit. If they’re lucky, they’ll have fewer flights but on bigger airplanes. If they aren’t, they’ll lose a lot of service. We’ll have to see how this all shakes out.

But overall, this is a good thing for travelers. And the speed with which is all shook out is pretty amazing.

In general, the renaming of a regional airline isn’t a very interesting thing. After all, travelers never buy tickets to fly on that specific airline. Instead, they buy tickets from the mainline airline, which then contracts for the regional carrier to do the flying. Many travelers won’t even know which airline they are flying on. But in the case of the ASA-ExpressJet merger, the renaming turned into a saga that was a fun story to watch. And now we finally have resolution using a very familiar name.

In short, here’s what happened:

Now for the long story.

ExpressJet is best known for being the main provider of Continental Express service. The airline was owned by Continental but after it was spun off, it started trying to find its own way. You probably remember its 2007 effort to start point-to-point flying between smaller markets. That failed for a variety of reasons, but I still liked the idea.

The end of the road came when SkyWest decided to buy ExpressJet and merge it with its Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) subsidiary.

The new combined management got to work on picking a name for the new
airline, and the result was a disaster. In July, it was announced that the new name would be SureJet.

SureJet? It had the ring of a consulting project gone wrong. The press release made it sound like the management team was trying to be inclusive in the naming process, but it forgot to actually check to see if the name sounded good on it own.

“SureJet” was developed using front-line employee feedback about qualities and characteristics such as assurance, reliability and trustworthiness. . .

All great things, but instead of actually just running a great airline, the company decided it needed to have a name that reflected it. It really came off as an airline trying to convince itself and its partners that it was a reliable airline, whether it was or not.

Less than week later, the name was shelved for good reason. Everyone hated it. In fact, the company was very up front about it.

Since the announcement, we have heard significant concerns from team members about the name SureJet, and it appears we’ve missed our mark.

And that was that. Fast forward to last week, and a new, or shall I say old, name resurfaced. The combined airline will now be known as . . . ExpressJet.

Atlantic Southeast dates back to 1979 when it started flying for Delta regionally with props, and it’s seemingly had an identity crisis at many different points. Since the early days, it was closely tied with Delta when it flew solely for the airline.

In 1999, Delta even bought the airline and held it until it sold in 2005 to SkyWest. The airline had fluctuated between the Atlantic Southeast and ASA names for years. To me, it was never a strong moniker.

ExpressJet certainly started off tied at the hip with Continental as Continental Express, but it moved away from that under the ExpressJet name as a newly-independent airline. The ExpressJet name defines the airline and its role well. It makes sense to just keep that name instead of creating a new one.

Management isn’t completely leaving ASA out in the cold. It’s keeping the logo and branding from ASA (in the few places where branding exists for regionals), just changing the name on it.

This doesn’t always work, but in this case, it seems like a good fit. And management looks good for actually listening to the feedback and taking it to heart. Maybe they’ll also dial back on the consultants over there as well after this whole thing.

Why is SkyWest Buying ExpressJet? – BNET Headwinds
You’ve probably been wondering why I was silent on this, but it was just a backlog of posts on the BNET site.

Why Delta Airlines Decided to Invade Iceland – BNET Headwinds
Delta’s going to Iceland, just like everyone else. But I don’t think it’s a bad move.

Stressed JetBlue attendant not flying solo – Crain’s New York Business
Crain’s asked me about the now famous JetBlue flight attendant who popped a slide and walked away.

JetBlue’s Stress Test: A Peek at the Secret Fantasy of Every Flight Attendant – BNET Headwinds
I honestly didn’t want to write about this, but the story blew up so fast, that I had to jump in.

Pilot Outsourcing a Tough Challenge for United-Continental Merger – BNET Headwinds
Pilot scope clauses are going to be front and center in the United/Continental merger. Did the SkyWest acquisition of ExpressJet have something to do with that?

JetBlue Plays It Smart (and Serious) After Steven Slater Incident – BNET Headwinds
It’s been an interesting week for JetBlue, and now the airline is talking directly to its employees about the Steven Slater incident. It’s an excellent letter.

ExpressJet’s New CEO Targets Costs to Fix the Airline. Duh – BNET
ExpressJet’s new CEO is trying to make his mark by focusing on costs. Shouldn’t this have been the case all along?

Spirit’s Pilot Strike: Management Is Winning the PR Battle – BNET
Regardless of how the strike is going, management is easily winning the PR battle, even though they probably shouldn’t be.

Continental and United: This “Merger of Equals” Isn’t a Great Plan – BNET
They keep talking about a merger of equals, but I’m not a fan of that plan. There are better ways to do this.

When Airports Should Subsidize Airlines – BNET
Usually, airport subsidies fail miserably in attracting sustainable airline service, but every so often, they work.

Good Move: American Protects Its Elite Members From the Unwashed Masses – BNET
American rolls out “Your Choice” and it’s not a bad way to approach a la carte pricing.

Long-time readers of the blog know that I’ve been following the development of Branson airport with interest. I even took a tour of the place back in 2008 when they were still building it out. Branson has actually done a decent job of attracting new service, but they’ve decided it’s not enough. If nobody else will do it, they’ll do it themselves. (And no JetBlue, I’m not singling you out in the pic – your name just sounds closest to Jobu, for those who get the reference.) I think this might work.

First let’s do a brief recap here. For those who don’t know, Branson sits in the southwest corner of Missouri, smack in the middle of the Ozark mountains. It’s a big regional destination for music and shows, but it’s never really become more than that. Until last May, the city was served only by the Springfield airport, about an hour north of town. Springfield is like many small towns in that it has limited service, mostly on regionals, to hub cities. It also has service from Allegiant, but that’s meant to take people out of town to hot spots, not bring them in. The people of Branson weren’t happy.

So some investors got together and decided to actually fund the building of an airport 15 minutes outside of town. The airport was literally built on a mountain. It’s a heck of an interesting site to see. But what’s most interesting is that they haven’t taken any public funding for the airport, so they have a lot more mobility. For example, they can offer exclusive access to an airline who comes in from a certain city.

They built this new airport for a small sum – seriously. It only cost $155 million to get it ready for service, and that includes razing the top of the mountain. When they built the airport, the hope was that they could attract low cost carriers from around the country to service the place for cheap. The goal was to expand the catchment area and make it easier to visit.

AirTran was the first to dive in with service to Atlanta. They added Milwaukee, but that failed. They now also have weekly service to Orlando. Sun Country also came in with service to Dallas and Minneapolis, but that’s not flying now. Branson Airport’s website says it’s coming back in the spring, but Sun Country doesn’t have it on their route map or in their schedules. Just recently, Frontier announced it will join the party from Denver starting in April.

Branson Airport, meanwhile, has been engaged with consultants galore to try to find ways to bring service in to town. Christmas in Branson is a big deal, so last holiday season, they chartered some airplanes from ExpressJet and flew a few roundtrips to Rockford and Shreveport. At the time, I thought it was a good idea, but I figured its utility was limited to peak seasons. Now, Branson Airport has stepped up to make this a full time deal.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Branson Air Express. To me, this seems like a similar idea to what we see with Direct Air out of Myrtle Beach. They need visitors and they don’t have enough air service, so they’re going to do it themselves. That’s what Branson is trying, apparently thanks to the advice of consulting firms Seabury Airline Planning Group and Contour Flight.

Branson will be chartering regional jets from ExpressJet to fly to Branson from Austin, Des Moines, Houston, Shreveport, and Terre Haute starting in May. So apparently that Shreveport service must have worked out pretty well last year, but the Rockford service? Guess not.

There’s no website with information, just a booking engine, so it’s hard to get full details. From my random June check, it looks like there’s no flying on Thursday and Sunday, for some odd reason. You’d think those would be big days for a weekend destination, but maybe ExpressJet couldn’t offer them the aircraft time on those days. Austin, Des Moines, and Houston will see service the other 5 days. Terre Haute and Shreveport will get flights Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

So can they make money bringing people in from places like Austin and Terre Haute on a 50 seat jet? I suppose it depends on how they look at this. From a straight flight profitability standpoint, my guess is no. But these guys are looking beyond that. They can make money off people staying in hotels in Branson and signing up for vacation packages. They also have lower costs since they’ll effectively be paying landing fees to themselves. So looking at it holistically, it might just make sense.

At least, some of these might make sense. Terre Haute? That might be a stretch. But we’ll see. It’s an interesting concept. And for ExpressJet, it’s just more money in the bank.