American Airlines steps up jet game from Fresno to LAX

American Airlines is stepping up its game on its regional flights between Fresno and Los Angeles, introducing a new generation of larger, quieter regional jets on Wednesday.

Compass Airlines, a contract carrier based out of Minneapolis, will begin operating a new Embraer E175 regional jet on one of American’s four daily flights between Fresno Yosemite International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport. The Compass / American flight using the 76-seat jet replaces a late-afternoon flight formerly operated by Utah-based SkyWest Airlines using a 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 regional jet.

The E175’s engines are mounted on the wings, which makes for a quieter ride for passengers aboard the plane, said Kevin Meikle, director of aviation for the city of Fresno. By contrast, the CRJ200’s engines are mounted at the rear of the fuselage. “The E175 is a quieter, high-end jet and I believe passengers will be pleased with its comforts and flight performance,” Meikle said. He added that the engines are also much more fuel-efficient.

Compass announced earlier this year that it was taking delivery of 20 E175s owned by American Airlines to begin service under the American Eagle brand in various markets. This is the first time that Compass has served the Fresno market. While Fresno airport leaders are not very familiar with Compass, “I think from a corporate level, airlines are executing contracts with whatever company is going to give them the best deal,” Meikle said.

SkyWest remains the largest carrier serving Fresno, and will continue to operate its CRJ200 jets on the rest of the nonstop American and United flights from Fresno to Los Angeles.

But Meikle said the entry of Compass and the E175 into the Fresno market continues an evolution of service with more modern aircraft for the airport. At the start of this year, all but 15 of the 60 weekly flights offered by SkyWest under the United Airlines and American Airlines banners were aboard aging Embraer EMB120 turboprop airplanes. Since the spring, however, SkyWest replaced its EMB120s with the CRJ200 jets. Last month, Alaska Airlines made the last commercial propeller-driven airline flight when it converted its flights to San Diego from deHavilland Dash 8 / Bombardier Q400 turboprops to Bombardier CRJ700 jets.

“I think we’re going to see a multi-year transition by the airlines from the smaller regional jets to the E175” and its smaller sibling, the Embraer E170, Meikle said Tuesday. “The airlines are really excited about this family of aircraft.”

With larger aircraft, however, the potential exists for fewer flight choices for passengers flying from Fresno. For six days of the week, there is only one SkyWest / United Airlines flight from Fresno to Los Angeles, with two flights on Sundays. There are three SkyWest / United flights daily to San Francisco, a reduction from four to five daily flights earlier this year.

This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 4:42 PM with the headline "American Airlines steps up jet game from Fresno to LAX."