Instead of confining the pax for 4 hours on an RJ, why not give them the travel flexibility of all the flights out of LAX??
Why not bring back LAX-BFL? I think that half a dozen (maybe more) daily SAABs BFL-LAX would make sense - BFL is as far away from LAX as is SAN; with a population of 250k in Bakersfield and almost 700k in Kern County, I'm certain AE could fill several flights. I think Skywest flies 6 daily flights for UAL. Whether any money would be made, on the other hand, is another matter.
