Northwest was not as quick as many other network carriers to jump aboard the regional-jet trend of the mid-1990s, recognizing that turboprop economics on its shorter-haul sectors remained much better than even the new RJs could approach, and on runs to stations like Tupelo, Brainerd, and Flint, there was not enough of a difference in block times to squeeze in an extra rotation per day. Republic had learned that high-frequency operations with smaller-capacity prop aircraft were much more effective at generating new traffic than using DC-9s only once or twice per day, and Northwest was not about to abandon that successful strategy.
Rather, the move toward small jet equipment lay more in the need for aircraft with intermediate capacity between 34-seat Saabs and the smaller DC-9-10s which were quickly nearing the end of their life cycles. NWA’s traffic was growing, but their pilot contract scope clause only left enough room for 54 regional jets, with a maximum 60 seats. Saab pitched its model 2000 fifty-seat turboprop, but this was ruled out, leaving the field to Embraer’s 145 and Bombardier’s CRJ, each also with around fifty seats. Northwest was interested in future airframe stretches should their pilot contract be amended, which struck the already-long 145 from the list. NWA joined the Bombardier advisory council (which would later contribute to the specifications for its CS100 [now Airbus A220] project) and placed a then-record $1.3 billion order in February 1999 for 54 CRJ-200LRs.
These aircraft would be initially delivered to Express Airlines I and deployed from the Memphis hub. Mesaba would be tagged for later deliveries and the CRJ would be seen on short to medium range routes everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains by the mid-2000s. Top-up orders for more -200s and the -440 series would bring the 50-seat fleet to 136 airframes by the time of the Delta merger (at that point then flying for Pinnacle).
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