American Airlines has inked a deal with Republic Airways to flying under the American Eagle brand.  Republic will operate 53 Embraer E-175 jets with 12 first class seats and 64 coach seats.  The contract will last 12 years from the time the aircraft are put into service and the full complement won’t be in service until 2015.

If I were American Eagle or an employee of American Eagle, this would worry me.

It’s clear that no matter who runs AA in the future, contracting out American Eagle services will only increase, not decrease.  In addition, it will likely go to regional airlines that either have the equipment today or the orders for the equipment already in place.

American Eagle has neither.  It’s fleet is primarily comprised of the ERJ-135/140/145 aircraft although they do have 47 Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft.  If the team at American Eagle wasn’t getting ready for a new world order, they should be doing so as of this morning.

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax