A scope clause is part of a contract between an airline

Airline

An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

 and a pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

. Generally, these clauses are used by the union of a Major airline to limit the number and/or size of aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 that airline may contract out to a Regional airline

Regional airline

Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service...

. The goal is to protect union jobs at the major airline from being eliminated by regional airlines operating larger aircraft.

Influence on airlines

Scope clauses place restrictions on how many and what size of aircraft a regional airline may operate. Some holding companies operate a large number of individual airlines, with each airline's fleet specifically tuned to the scope clause of that airline's contracted major carrier. Republic Airways Holdings

Republic Airways Holdings

Republic Airways Holdings, Inc. is an aviation holding corporation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, which owns six airlines operating in the United States: Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Republic Airlines, Shuttle America, and the former Lynx Aviation....

 is an example of a company structured in this manner.

Influence on aircraft manufacturers

Scope clauses have a major influence on manufacturers of regional aircraft. Manufacturers will create airplanes specifically tuned to the scope clauses of most airlines. For this reason and others, regional aircraft tend to be manufactured in families, and competing regional aircraft will often have identical seating capacity.

• 19 seats:
  • Beechcraft 1900
    Beechcraft 1900
    The Beechcraft 1900 is a 19-passenger, pressurized twin-engine turboprop airplane manufactured by the Beechcraft Division of the Raytheon Company . It was designed, and is primarily used, as a regional airliner...
    
    
  • Fairchild Metroliner
• 34 seats:
  • Bombardier Dash 8
  • Embraer ERJ 135
  • Dornier 328
    Dornier 328
    |-See also:- References :* Swanborough, Gordon. "Dornier 328: A Daimler for Commuters". Air International, March 1992, Vol. 42 No. 3. pp. 123–128. ISSN 0306-5634....
    
    , 328JET
• 44 seats:
  • Embraer ERJ 140
  • Dornier 428JET
• 50 seats:
  • Bombardier CRJ200
    Bombardier CRJ200
    The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 are a family of regional airliner manufactured by Bombardier, and based on the Canadair Challenger business jet.-Development:...
    
    
  • Bombardier Dash 8 Q300
  • Embraer ERJ 145
  • Dornier 528
  • ATR 42
    ATR 42
    -Civil operators:The largest operators of the ATR-42 are FedEx Express, Airlinair, TRIP Linhas Aéreas,and Mexico City-based Aeromar respectively. Number of aircraft as of 2010:Some 70 other airlines operate smaller numbers of the type....
    
    
• 70 seats:
  • Bombardier CRJ700
    Bombardier CRJ700
    The Bombardier CRJ700, CRJ900, and CRJ1000 are regional airliners based on the Bombardier CRJ200. Final assembly of the aircraft is at Montréal-Mirabel International Airport in Mirabel, Quebec, outside Montreal, Canada.-Development:...
    
    
  • Embraer 170
  • Dornier 728
  • Dash 8 Q400
  • ATR 72
    ATR 72
    The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional airliner built by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR. ATR and Airbus are both built in Toulouse, and share resources and technology...
    
    
• 90 seats:
  • Bombardier CRJ900
  • Embraer 190
  • Dornier 928

Support and criticism

Scope clauses are supported as a means of saving union jobs. Additionally, major airline pilots are usually higher paid than regional pilots, and there is a perceived safety advantage in favor of major airlines. Criticism of scope clauses centers on the limits they place on the regional airlines they target. They are seen as a way of artificially maintaining the pay of major airline pilots when regional pilots will in theory fly the same size airplanes for less pay.