The Last Revenue CRJ200 Flight for Endeavor Air

DALLAS — On Sunday, April 30, Endeavor Air (9E) operated its last revenue CRJ200 flight. The airline, which is wholly owned by Delta Air Lines (DL), is a regional carrier that flies short-haul small-market routes on behalf of the Atlanta-based carrier.

The CRJ200 was the smallest airplane in DL's fleet for years. Over the past few years, the number of CRJ200s in service has decreased in favor of larger regional jets, including the CRJ700, CRJ900, and Embraer E175, which have a capacity of up to 76 passengers.

Last night, 9E retired its last CRJ200 with a flight between Brunswick, Georgia, to Atlanta, Georgia. A CRJ200 operated flight 5278 registered N8918B departed Brunswick Golden Isles Airport (BQK) at 6:20 PM and arrived an hour and twelve minutes later at 7:32 PM at Delta's hub in Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport (ATL).

The CRJ700 and CRJ900 have replaced the CRJ200 on this route and other aircraft types operated across the Southern United States.

The aircraft N8918B was first delivered to Northwest Airlines' regional subsidiary Pinnacle Airlines in 2004 as a Bombardier CRJ440 with 44 seats. Then in 2007, the aircraft was converted to a 50 seats CRJ200, where it operated with Pinnacle and then Endeavor after Northwest's merger with Delta. 

In addition to flight, 8918 Endeavors last two CRJ200s also made their final revenue flights. Both flights 8946 and 8986 made their final revenue service arriving at ATL Sunday night. Those two aircraft will be flown to Kingman, Arizona, where the rest of Endeavor's CRJ200s fleet is stored.

There are rumors that N8918B will be doing some ceremonial employee flights throughout Endeavor's hubs in Minneapolis (MSP), Cincinnati (CVG), Detroit (DTW), New York (LGA), and Atlanta (ATL) before it gets stored in Kingman.

Legacy of the CRJ200 at Delta

The CRJ200 has been the backbone of 9E's regional fleet. At its peak, the airline operated 146 examples of aircraft. Pinnacle Airlines was the first subsidiary to fly the CRJ200 where. Some of them came from the airline's original brand of Express 1.

Pinnacle would go on to acquire Minnesota-based Mesaba and its fleet of CRJ200s in 2010. Pinnacle would then be rebranded as Endeavor in 2012 and grew its fleet of used CRJ200s. These aircraft often came from ExpressJet and ASA (Atlantic Southeast Airlines).

Although 9E is retiring its fleet of CRJ200s, Skywest (OO), which is another regional operator for DL, still operates the aircraft type. OO currently operates 20 examples of the aircraft in its fleet. The cramped cabin and small overhead bins made the CRJ200 one of the most disliked regional aircraft.

In 2020, DL announced that it plans to retire the CRJ200 from its fleet by the end of 2023. The airline stated the absence of a first-class cabin as one of the main reasons for the decision to phase out the aircraft. Despite DL retiring its fleet, United Express (UA) still operates the aircraft type, and American Airlines (AA) will also be returning its CRJ-200s to service ahead of the busy summer travel season.

Featured image: Delta Connection (Endeavor Air) N8683B Bombardier CRJ-200, sister of N8918B. Photo: Mateo Skinner/Airways