A nation’s economic development is determined by various factors, one being nationwide connectivity in respect of transportation, be it by road, waterways or air. For rapid growth, air transportation is highly critical, and a judicious mix of aviation business accelerates economic activity. While the full service airlines and low-cost carriers connect major metros and international destinations, regional airlines connect the non-metros to the metros. The hinterland markets are largely untapped and countries which have networked the metros and non-metros through regional airlines have gained substantially. Regional airlines are those that operate smaller aircraft of less than 100 seats, either as a feeder for a major carrier or as an independent entity. There are a number of regional airlines in the world that have facilitated air transportation and in turn contributed to the economic development of the country.

Regional Airline Network in the US

The United States is a classic example of how regional carriers are integrated with mainline business and provide countrywide connectivity. No other country comes close to the way the US is networked through air transportation. The US Government encouraged early the emergence of regional airlines to provide services for smaller communities to larger towns, where air passengers could connect to a larger network. The first US regional carrier called commuter airline, was Wright Airlines, founded in 1966 by the US aviation legend Gerald Weller in Cleveland, Ohio.

Nearly 50 years from then, the US now has over 13,000 regional airline flights daily. According to the Regional Airline Association 2013 report, regional players operate over 50 per cent of the nation’s commercial schedule with 1,727 regional jets (954 Bombardier and 773 Embraer aircraft) and 598 turboprops. The report said that Chicago O’Hare airport had the most regional departures, 23,149 in July 2013. Some 160 million passengers annually, more than one of every five domestic airline passengers, travel on regionals and the more than 2,700 regional aircraft comprise about nearly 40 per cent of the US commercial passenger fleet. Most notably, regional airlines serve 631 communities across the country and in 486 of those communities, 77 per cent of the US regional airlines provide the only scheduled service. Such is the presence of regional airlines in the United States.

SkyWest Airlines Tops

SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines together flew 5,85,39,100 passengers, representing 36.2 per cent of traffic in the regional segment. As a leading air service provider offering global access to millions each month, SkyWest partners with the world’s largest network carriers including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, the US Airways, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. With a fleet of 333 aircraft, SkyWest’s more than 10,500 aviation professionals operate over 1,700 flights daily to 182 destinations throughout North America. SkyWest is known for its industry-leading workforce, exceptional leadership team and continued solid operational and economic performance. The airline is headquartered in St. George, Utah. It has hubs in Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle.

SkyWest Airlines operates a fleet consisting of 36 Bombardier CRJ-900, 97 CRJ-700, 155 CRJ-200, 45 EMB-120 jets and 120 turboprops. It currently serves 182 cities in 40 states, six Canadian provinces, Mexico and the Bahamas.

Republic Holdings Expanding Its Reach

Accounting for 12.4 per cent of regional passenger movement, Republic Airways Holdings is an aviation holding corporation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, which owns three airlines operating in the United States. These are Chautauqua Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America. Chautauqua operates regional jet aircraft with up to 50 seats, Shuttle America operates Embraer 175 aircraft airliners with 76 seats and Republic Airlines operates Embraer 170, 175 and 190 aircraft with 70 to 99 seats. Chautauqua Airlines has been offering scheduled commercial passenger service for nearly 40 years. The all-jet airline currently operates a fleet of Embraer and Bombardier regional jets. All of its flights are operated under its major airline partner brand, such as American Connection, Delta Connection and United Airlines.

Republic Airlines offers scheduled services as the US Airways Express and Frontier Airlines. It currently operates a fleet of Q400s, Embraer 170s, Embraer 175s and Embraer 190s. Offering scheduled services since 1998, Shuttle America currently operates Embraer 170 and 175 regional jets as Delta Connection and Embraer 170 regional jets as United Express. The three airlines operate more than 1,300 daily flights while serving approximately 52,000 customers a day, flying to destinations in North America.

Lufthansa CityLine in Europe

Lufthansa CityLine is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa and a member of the Lufthansa Regional network. It is the largest regional airline in Europe with its main base in Cologne Bonn Airport. CityLine operates additional hubs at Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf International and Munich Airports. In 2012, the airline carried 7.6 million passengers. Lufthansa City-Line is one of four strong partners in the Lufthansa Regional concept. The Lufthansa Regional partners offer all the advantages of a strong network. In addition to non-stop services between regional airports, the four partners offer smooth connections via the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the world’s largest airline network, that of the Star Alliance. The Lufthansa CityLine fleet encompasses 65 modern, environment-friendly short- and medium-range jets. Both the CRJ and the Embraer offer a degree of comfort comparable to that of larger jets.

Lufthansa CityLine`s route network reaches far. With up to 375 daily flights to more than 116 destinations, Lufthansa CityLine offers fast and convenient non-stop connections from Munich and Frankfurt within Europe. Among the destinations within CityLine`s route network are Europe`s metropolises from Brussels, London to Florence.

Flybe top UK Regional Carrier

Flybe, based in the UK, is one of Europe’s largest regional carriers operating a route network to 45 destinations in Europe. Flybe’s largest base is Southampton Airport and it has other large bases at Belfast, Birmingham and Manchester. It has a franchise agreement with Scottish airline Loganair and both put together have flown over 2.5 million passengers in the five-year partnership on 1,39,147 flights operated by Loganair under the Flybe brand. Over six per cent of these passengers have taken advantage of the convenient connecting flights between Loganair and Flybe’s regional network. Loganair currently flies 25 routes under the Flybe brand from 11 airports exclusively served by the Scottish airline.

China’s Top Regional Airline

Tianjin Airlines, formerly Grand China Express Air, is a regional airline operating domestic scheduled passenger and cargo flights out of Tianjin Binhai International Airport. The airline was established in 2004, merging the aviation assets of Hainan Airlines, China Xinhua Airlines, Chang’an Airlines and Shanxi Airlines. It received its operating licence from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2007. Scheduled flights were launched under the brand name Grand China Express Air using 29-32 seat Dornier 328-300 jets. At that time, the company was China’s largest regional airline operating on 78 routes linking 54 cities. On June 10, 2009, the company name was changed to Tianjin Airlines. The airline intends to fly to over 450 routes linking at least 90 cities, taking more than 90 per cent of the domestic regional aviation market. As of October 2013, the Tianjin Airlines fleet comprised seven Airbus A320, 23 Embraer ERJ 145, 50 Embraer 190 and 11 Dornier 328.

India Developing Regional Airlines

Conscious of the need to connect remote parts of the country to metros, the Indian Government has formulated a policy to enable regional airlines to grow. In 2007, the Civil Aviation Ministry had introduced scheduled operator permits for regional airlines in order to service smaller cities. It has received applications from 15 private companies for starting regional airlines services and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has granted permission to nine companies to do so. Regional airlines are required to operate in the small towns within one of the designated regions, North, South, West, East and the Northeast region. But they are not allowed to connect to more than one major city, except those licensed to fly in the Southern region.

Economic Slowdown

A number of Indian regional carriers have closed down. Religare Voyages Ltd, which launched Air Mantra, stopped operations of the regional airline eight months after its start because of poor bookings. MDLR Airlines stopped flying on October 1, 2009, within a short period. Several companies including Star Aviation, ZAV Airways, Jagson Airlines and King Air were licensed to fly as regional carriers, but none of them could start because of high jet fuel prices and the economic slowdown of 2008.

Air Costa, Regional to be watched

Vijayawada-based business house Lingamaneni Estates Private Limited (LEPL) Group launched Air Costa in October 2013, with its first flight between Hyderabad and Vijayawada. This move is set to give a boost to regional airlines which for some reason or the other, has been floundering. Air Costa at present has in its fleet two each of Embraer E-170 and E-190 aircraft. Air Costa plans to tap the hinterland market by connecting Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India and it has announced an ambitious investment plan of $150 million by 2015.

The plan is to have five E-170s and E-190s by the end of 2013, ten by 2014 and a total of 25 aircraft by 2018. “We are adopting an operational strategy wherein we would be focusing mostly on underserved and lesser competitive routes,” Air Costa Chairman Lingamaneni Ramesh said ahead of the launch. Air Costa will have unconventional city-pairs connecting Tier-II and Tier-III cities, looking at routes not served by the established carriers. It would be having pan-India operations by 2015 with 14 routes and reach 25 destinations in three years from then. “There is a huge market potential in such point-to-point and feeder routes which offer 59 per cent of potential revenue per kilometre (RPKMs). These are the non-trunk routes that Air Costa will tap into.”

Garu da Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia was named as the World’s Best Regional Airline at the 2012 World Airline Awards held at Farnborough Airshow. The President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Emirsyah Satar had said that ATR 72-600 and Bombardier CRJ-1000NextGen have the ability to serve flights to new destinations in Eastern Indonesia, which have limited runway. The “Explore” ATR 72-600 aircraft will support Garuda Indonesia’s Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft, operational in accordance to improve the national connectivity programme by developing flight network to the fast growing economic regions and tourist destination in the remote area in Indonesia.

Garuda Indonesia will receive 35 ATR 72-600 which includes firm orders for 25 and options for ten to be delivered in stages up to 2017. The aircraft will be used to serve short-haul point-topoint flights and flights between hubs and spokes. Garuda will use these new turboprop aircraft on routes that are under the 400 nm range in all regions of the country.

In line with the company’s longterm “Quantum Leap 2011-15” expansion programme, Garuda Indonesia took delivery of 26 new aircraft in 2013 to support the development of both the national and international flight networks. These included four Boeing 777-300 ER, three Airbus A330s, ten Boeing 737-800NG, seven Bombardier CRJ-1000NextGen and two ATR 72-600. Garuda Indonesia Group will operate as many as 139 aircraft fleet.

SilkAir of Singapore

SilkAir, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, is one of Asia’s leading regional carriers. Positioned as a premium shortto medium-haul carrier, it flies to Asia’s most exotic locations, serving both leisure and business travellers alike. Its attention to detail and commitment to service excellence has won the airline numerous accolades, including being named to the TTG Travel Hall of Fame in 2010. SilkAir is the regional wing of Singapore Airlines and operates scheduled passenger services from Singapore to 37 cities in the region of South East Asia, South Asia and China. This airline differs from airlines in North America and Middle America in that it uses “mainline sized equipment” that is aircraft with a seating capacity greater than 99 passenger, but uniquely receives the designation of a “regional airline” subsidiary by its aforementioned airline parent company.

Regional Express Soars in Australia

A consortium of businessmen comprising investors from Singapore and Australia bought Hazelton and Kendell turboprop passenger airlines businesses leading to the formation of Regional Express, more affectionately known as Rex. With roots firmly in the bush and in country Australia, its tagline boldly affirms that ‘Our Heart is in the Country’. Rex believes that the bush needs and deserves an air service of quality that provides good connectivity with capital cities at affordable prices. Rex seeks to fulfil these expectations. Since its formation, Rex has steered a course balancing the needs of regional communities for extensive and affordable air services and to be economically viable and sustainable. Rex has 95 aircraft that include Saab 340, Westwind 1124, Lear 35/36, Brazilia 120, Beechcraft 1900D, King Air B-200C, Piper Chieftain, Cessna 310, Piper Warrior, Piper Seminole and Cessna 150.