By Joey Gerardi
Endeavor Air Winds Down Detroit CRJ-200 Operations
Airlines around the world change their schedules constantly, and that’s nothing new. But over the last couple of months, Delta has had a considerable amount of shift in its schedule, most of which includes moving away from its smaller 50-seat CRJ-200 in favor of larger and much more reliable CRJ-700s and CRJ-900s. Endeavor Air, Delta’s wholly owned subsidiary, is slowly winding down its operations with the current smallest plane in Delta’s fleet, the almost unanimously hated CRJ-200.
Back in November of 2022, AirlineGeeks reported that Delta was shifting focus away from its Detroit hub in favor of other hubs, by ending nine routes to small cities more than half of which were not so coincidently operating on the ill-fated CRJ-200. As of the time this article was written, Endeavor Air only has 17 active CRJ-200s in service, a number which continues to go down every week as they fly more of them to Kingman, Ariz. for retirement in the desert.
A Delta Connection CRJ-200 (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
Endeavor has already ended all CRJ-200 flying from its Minneapolis/St. Paul hub and only five destinations still see the Endeavor Air-operated CRJ-200s out of Detroit-Metro. The cities that still see Endeavor Air CRJ-200s on routes out of Detroit include, Saginaw, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Marquette all of which are located in Michigan, as well as Chattanooga in Tennessee. All of these cities are scheduled to see their last scheduled Delta CRJ-200 flights on March 8, 2023, according to Delta’s website.
Endeavor Air operated CRJ-200 flights out of Detroit (Photo: GreatCircleMapper)
This will also signal the closing of the Endeavor CRJ-200 base in Detroit, and Atlanta will become the only hub that will still have Endeavor CRJ-200s regularly scheduled from it. Come March 9, all the Endeavor CRJ-200 routes out of Detroit will be upgraded to either CRJ-700s or CRJ-900s and will continue to see the flights all operated by Endeavor. This will be a big capacity boost for these small cities as Saginaw and Lansing will go from 100 daily seats up to 152, Marquette will go from 50 to 76 as they only see one flight a day, and Kalamazoo will go from 100 to 138 daily seats, and Chattanooga will have their Detroit seat number go from 50 up to 76.
Chattanooga also sees 6-8 daily flights to Atlanta on a mix of Boeing 717s, A319s, and CRJ-900s, unlike the other cities mentioned in this article which only see flights from Detroit. Flights from Detroit to Lansing, Saginaw, Marquette, and Chattanooga will all be operated on the CRJ-900, but the flights to Kalamazoo will be operated on the CRJ-700 due to an aircraft noise restriction in the city.
A Delta Connection CRJ-200 in Lansing (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
Endeavor Air will continue to operate the CRJ-200 to a number of small cities out of Atlanta for the time being. In addition, SkyWest still operates flights on board CRJ-200s out of Detroit, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City to a hand full of Essential Air Service communities where SkyWest holds contracts. While it isn’t a massive deal for those that don’t fly to these small communities, it does signal the beginning of the end for one of the most almost unanimously hated commercial aircraft in the skies today.
If you still have a burning desire to fly on this aircraft type, a large number of them operate still operate under the United Express brand and American is even un-retiring the CRJ-200 this spring. All flight and schedule data was pulled directly from Delta’s website and could be changed without notice.
Joe has always been interested in planes, for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. Being from a non-aviation family made it harder for him to be around planes and would only spend about three hours a month at the airport. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. When he has the time (and money) he likes to take spotting trips to any location worth a visit. He’s currently enrolled at Western Michigan University earning a degree in Aviation Management and Operations.
