Regional Aviation - The Growth Story

Civil aviation worldwide is driven by local or regional dynamics. Since World War II, regional aviation within nations’ aerospace boundaries has evolved in consonance with a nation’s regulatory and industrial progress.

Perceptions of the term ‘regional aviation’ vary across the aviation world. Geographies, demographics and advances in civil aviation within individual nations influence their definitions of the term. However, for the sake of some common ground for discussion, let us situate regional aviation at the lowest rung of the hierarchy. At the highest level of stratification would be located ‘international’ or ‘major’ airlines with aircraft of the largest size. These are usually wide-bodied; have more than one aisle; are sometimes equipped with an upper deck; and are generally deployed for trans-continental operations. The next rung is ‘domestic’ or ‘national’ airlines with single or twin-aisle aircraft with reach across their parent nation and possibly to neighbouring ones. Regional airlines occupy the lowest rung and serve to connect small towns and airports to a nearby hub, often feeding a major or a national airline and are thus frequently referred to as ‘feeder airlines’. Typically, a regional airliner would be equipped with 100 seats or less.

In the US, an airline’s ranking is determined by its annual revenue. Major airlines are those with revenues of more than $1 billion ( Rs. 5,500 crore). National carriers are those that rake in between $100 million ( Rs. 550 crore) and $1 billion. Regional airlines occupy the space with revenues below $100 million annually. The US regional airlines are further divided into three categories; large regionals, which are scheduled carriers with $20 million ( Rs. 110 crore) to $100 million in annual revenue and operate aircraft that can accommodate more than 60 passengers; medium regionals are those that operate on a smaller scale with revenues of under $20 million and often use only small aircraft. The third category, small regionals does not have a set revenue definition, but is usually referred to as ‘commuter airlines’ operating small aircraft with fewer than 61 seats.

It should be clear from the preceding that tiny nations would probably have no need for regional airlines. A regional airliner or a feeder liner is a small airliner designed to fly up to 100 passengers on short-haul flights, usually feeding hubs from where larger carriers operate. This class of aircraft is typically flown by the regional airlines that are either contracted by or are subsidiaries of the larger airlines. Feeder liner, commuter and local service are all alternative terms for the same class of flight operations.

Evolution of Regional Aircraft

Regional aviation evolved at two concurrent levels. Technological advances steadily served to increase aircraft range and seating capacity thus permitting carriage of ever larger number of passengers over longer distances. In the early days of aviation, almost every aircraft had a relatively short range and so, juxtaposed with today’s scenario, every airline was regional in nature. Thus a journey beyond the normal range of an aircraft necessitated flights with multiple legs. With the introduction of longer range aircraft, airplanes with limited range were relegated to the regional category and served to feed the newer and longer range airliners flying to airline hubs. On another level, demographical evolution of nations meant development of new cities and increasing disposable incomes; hence the need for short-range flights from metros to and amongsmaller cities. The growth of regional aviation spurred the development of airport infrastructure in smaller cities. However, as use of aircraft designed for long-range for regional flights meant suboptimum utilisation, to economise operations on shorter routes, airlines were generally unwilling to spend large amounts of money on new aircraft and frequently used second-hand aircraft. After World War II, the Douglas DC3 served this role admirably, although even the De Havilland Dragon Rapide remained in service for some time. The use of ‘second-hand’ aircraft continued with designs like the Convair440, Douglas DC6 and Vickers Viscount also serving in this role even while the first jets were introduced.

By the mid-1950s, the demand for economical designs for short hauls led to the production of the first customised regional aircraft types such as Avro HS748, Fokker F27 and Handley Page Dart Herald. These aircraft were generally turboprops, a design which offered fuel economy on par with piston engine but with far lower maintenance costs. The average time between engine overhauls for turboprops was five times that of equivalent piston engines. These early designs were extremely successful and for many years, there was no motivation to develop better designs for regional operations except catering to niche requirements. For example, the Handley Page Jetstream, which first flew in 1968, was intended to carry a small number of passengers at high speed and replaced smaller designs like the Beechcraft Queen Air. The Fairchild/Swearingen Metro, developed from the Queen Air fulfilled a similar requirement. By the 1970s, the first generation of regional airliners were reaching the end of their useful life while there had been hardly any efforts towards producing new designs for the regional market. Shorts produced 30-seat designs, the Shorts 330 and 360, with instant success. Other additions to the regional airline industry came from De Havilland Canada such as the Dash7 delivered in 1978. But this was tailored more to the short-range and short take-off and landing role rather than as a regional airliner. Demand from the airlines was fairly consistent about the need for an aircraft optimised for inexpensive regional performance and De Havilland responded with the twin-engine Dash8 in 1984 which had economic benefits over the earlier generation machines, was faster and quieter as well. By the early 1990s, the Dash8 had carved out a successful career and had prompted the development of a number of comparable designs such as the ATR 42/72, Saab 340, Embraer Brasilia and Fokker F50. The highly competitive market conditions pushed many old regional designs of the 1950s and 1960s into oblivion. Saab was forced to exit from the civil aviation market while Daimler-Benz Aerospace moved away from Dornier. British Aerospace ended production of their BAe Jetstream41 after 100 aircraft had been delivered. In the early years of this century, only a few turboprops remained steadfast in the regional market, ATR being the foremost.