Bombardier Aerospace is showing its CRJ900 NextGen regional-jet here in 76-seat guise and the uniform of Northwest Airlines subsidiary Mesaba Airlines less than two weeks after a sister machine was unveiled in Washington, D.C. For regionals like Mesaba, the NextGen CRJ “will have substantially lower seat-mile costs than [competing] Embraer regional jets,” according to commercial-operations vice president Rod Williams.
Mesaba’s NextGen CRJ900s feature a new 12-seat premium-cabin section with a single seat on the left side and dual seats on the right. The 64 economy-class seats offer a 31-inch seat pitch. All the seats, made by C&D Zodiac and clad in leather, offer adjustable headrests that move vertically and bend inward on each side. New LED passenger and wash lighting should last the life of the airplane without bulb replacement. Overhead storage bins can accommodate 21 percent more roller bags than the original CRJ900 (and 27 percent more in the CRJ700), without reducing passenger headroom. Left-side seats in the forward section feature smaller overhead storage bins with latchable sliding doors large enough for briefcases and other light luggage. Passengers also should appreciate larger cabin windows, with new cutouts increasing window height by two inches to 15.8 inches.
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