Tomorrow night will mark the final United Airlines (United Express) turboprop-operated flight in North America.
While United Express operated by Skywest retired its fleet of Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia Turboprop almost three years ago, United Express operated by CommutAir has continued to operate Bombardier Q200s, mostly along the East Coast.
Tomorrow night, Sunday January 7th, will be the final Q200 flight from Syracuse to Washington Dulles.
United Flight 4909
Syracuse, NY (SYR)
Departs 7:25 p.m.
Washington (IAD)
Arrives 9:16 p.m.
United Express SVP Brad Rich stated–
This aircraft has generated significant value to the company’s route network for many years. Working together with Network Planning, we are constantly analyzing our overall fleet plans ensuring we have the right aircraft meeting market demand. We are excited to have CommutAir converting to exclusively jet service, providing our customers and employees with a more efficient and consistent product.
Don’t think you’ll necessarily be getting a better aircraft, however. The Q200s will be replaced with single-cabin Embraer’s E-145. I find seating more spacious aboard the Q200. Sad that the removal of a turboprop will constitute a product downgrade…
Still want to fly a turboprop and earn United miles? You’ll have to go to Guam for that. There, United parters with Cape Air which still operates ATR-42s under the United Express banner.
image: redlegsfan21 / FLICKR
I’ll miss the turbo-props. I always found it fun to get a little throwback after all the time on jets. I think Air Canada still runs a turboprop on the Montreal to Quebec City route. and probably on a few intra-Canada routes. Never tried to earn United miles that way, but it’s probably possible through Star Alliance.
I’m with you; I don’t like the ERJs. They do have the advantage of being faster and quieter, but they’re not comfortable at all. This is the way the regionals are all going, though!
My very first flight was on a Lufthansa Lockheed Constellation from Hamburg to New York. I was just a few months old and my family was emigrating to San Francisco. I supposedly was a screamer; yet, I remained in a state of quiet bliss all the way across the Atlantic, thanks to the drone of the propellers.
It was either that or I was drugged by my parents.
Anyway, I have always had a love affair with propeller driven airliners. There was always more of a feeling of adventure and excitement when boarding a prop plane.
My all time greatest, most wonderful flight was aboard an Aeroflot Il-18 from Copenhagen to Moscow, on a trip to visit my mother’s family. That plane was LOUD and it vibrated so badly that I was sure it was going to tear itself apart in midair. It was so amazingly thrilling! And the stewardess came down the aisle with a tray of vodka shots; I was so excited that she offered one to this 13 year old.
On a more mundane note: Years ago, when I was commuting to DC, I would go out of my way to connect via EWR just so I could fly on one of Continental ‘s Q400s down to DCA.
As others have said, just because it’s a jet doesn’t necessarily make it better. Just more boring.
Please forgive my long-winded reminiscing.
What an amazing first flight!
Upon reading Imperators comment I googled “Lufthansa Lockheed Constellation” and this came up
http://superstar.lufthansa.com/en/home.html
Great reference point!
BTW, you can also take flights within Germany with Lufthansa vintage planes
Booking is opening up this week if you are interested!
https://www.dlbs.de/en/index.php
I remember flying EWR-PVD. After the safety announcement somebody asked why they didn’t talk about the oxygen mask, The FA said “we don’t go high enough that we need those”.
I remember flying the Q200 and there being no PA, just the FA using a high-school-cheerleader style loudspeaker!
Non sense–the E-145 is much better than the q-200 in comfort. 1/2seating
neats 2/2 and 5 in the back.
I disagree…so not nonsense, just a difference of opinion.
Yep. Won’t miss these. So loud!
And the the tiny jets, while dinky, are at lot quieter than the larger regionals IIRC.
There are still 3 ATR’s flying out of Guam for United Express.
I don’t think comfort is different but man, the Q200 was insanely loud inside (and out). I live next to the Carlsbad, CA airport (CLD) and we lost our only commercial service (CLD LAX) in ’15 when Skywest dropped the Q200 (the newer jets are too big to fly full from CLD in all conditions, so United dropped service rather than attempt to fly partially full planes). I flew it a dozen times and it never ceased to amaze me that even with noise-cancelling headlines the noise level was incredible. The RJs are more comfortable IMO, even if the pitch is a little less.
The final United Express turboprop flight left Syracuse on time on Sunday night and arrived at Dulles about 20 minutes early. My guess is they will shorten the scheduled runs now that it’s an entirely jet service, since the ERJs have a much shorter flight time for the same routes.
Was just looking these up to find the model so I could try and buy a desk model of it. Sad to see that they went away but it was only a matter of time. I used to cater those planes plus Skywest and they were pretty nice. Only complaints I ever heard was from the people sitting next to the props lol.