Atlanta based Delta Air lines (DL/DAL) has made the decision to reduce the number of regional carriers that fly as Delta connection. To do this, Delta is terminating agreements for regional flying with Compass Airlines and GoJet Airlines.

Delta currently has 5 airlines under contract to fly for Delta Connection. This will be reduced to just 3 after the GoJet and Compass contracts are officially terminated. The remaining carriers will be Skywest Airlines, Endeavor Airlines, and Republic Airways. Last year, regional carrier ExpressJet stopped flying for Delta connection. With the latest two contract terminations, Delta will have cut the number of regional carriers flying for it in half over the span of a few years.

Currently, Compass Airlines flies 36 Embraer E175 Aircraft for Delta connection on the West Coast. These flights are primarily out of Delta’s hubs in Seattle and Los Angeles. Compass used to operate flights out of its headquarters in Minneapolis, but these were shifted to the West Coast years ago as Delta focused its growth on the west coast.

To replace the Compass Airlines flights, it is believed that Skywest Airlines will once again move its Embraer E175 operation entirely to the West Coast. Skywest is operating 54 Embraer E175 aircraft for Delta across the country out of Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, and New York LaGuardia.

The 36 Embraer E175 aircraft that Compass is currently operating for Delta will be transferred to Republic Airways, which flies primarily out of East Coast bases. It is not yet known which hubs will receive these aircraft, but it is presumed that all of Delta’s hubs east of Salt Lake City will receive some of these aircraft.

Compass will be left with a fleet of just 20 Embraer E175 aircraft all operated for American Eagle Air out of Los Angeles. Since its fleet of aircraft is going from 56 aircraft to just 20, Compass will likely be forced to cut its staff significantly. Hopefully, some of the pilots will be offered positions with Republic Airways although this would require a move from the West Coast to the East Coast.

GoJet operates 27 Bombardier CRJ700 and CRJ900 aircraft for Delta, primarily out of its Minneapolis hub. These aircraft will be transferred to Endeavor Air and will likely remain based in Minneapolis. Endeavor also announced it would take 13 CRJ700 aircraft from another Delta Connection carrier according to FlightGlobal. Skywest currently has 13 CRJ700 aircraft operating for Delta, so it would make sense that these are the 13 aircraft going to Endeavor. This transfer would make Endeavor the sole operator of the CRJ700 for Delta. It is possible that these additional CRJ700 aircraft will be used out of Minneapolis as well to fill in the loss of the Skywest Embraer E175 aircraft.

An Endeavor Air CRJ900

With this change, GoJet will fly exclusively for United Express. Earlier this year, it was announced that GoJet would be the operator of the Bombardier CRJ550, a 50 seat variant of the CRJ700 for United. Before this. GoJet operated 17 CRJ700 aircraft for United. Many of the CRJ700s are currently ongoing conversion to CRJ550 aircraft and are also being painted in United’s new livery. It is not yet known where these aircraft will be based either, but it is assumed they will be flying regional routes with heavier premium demand. The CRJ550 has 10 first-class seats and 20 Economy Plus seats compared to just 6 first-class seats and 16 Economy Plus seats on the CRJ700.

All images by Alec Mollenhauer/Aeronautics Online