A Pinnacle Airlines contract with its pilots, if ratified in mid-January, will provide Delta Air Lines with its path to reducing the number of 50-seat jets operated by its regional airline partners to 125 or fewer by the end of 2015. That will be down from more than 300 now, which Delta says will save $400-500 million over the next three years by avoiding heavy maintenance checks. At Pinnacle, the cost-cutting contract could save the carrier, albeit with a much smaller workforce, under long-term assignments to operate 76-seat Bombardier CRJ700s for Delta while phasing out its 50-seater operations for the carrier.
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