Turboprops make comeback on $110 oil

You may not like to fly prop jobs, because they are (allegedly) bumpy. Well, on a flight of 600 miles, a current-generation propper like the Bombardier Q400 can use as much as
Meet 70 percent less fuel than a regional jet.

As for turboprops’ smaller passenger capacity, the flip side is that quicker taxis and takeoffs mean you can get them in and out faster. Plus, it means that spoke-and-hub flying may need to rethink itself anyway, into something more along the lines of Southwest’s quasi-hub “focus city” model.

That, in turn would push for more smaller airports at the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, and open the door for more airlines, whether that’s good or bad in the long term.

In any case, the major airlines risk becoming as dinosaur-like as the Big Three of American automakers if they’re not prepared to adapt.

Their pilots and such will have to recognize it too, but the pilots still need to fight ridiculous compensation/bonus offers to airline execs.