“Anyone who has cooled their heels waiting for a flight has seen the crew board WELL before passengers are called.”
Agreed, as one who wandered the world during my working life, I’ve done my share of “heel cooling.” But my concern is that this is a regional carrier who may not be so rigorous. Years ago, while attending San Jose State ( Aviation Management Major), my son was “night manager” for Reno Air Express. He told me that the maintenance of their A/C was borderline criminal ( flying with cracked struts was one example), and that the pilots were low time kids being paid hourly. Reno Air Express was owned by a company in Indianapolis that ran “ branded commuter service” for a number of major airlines all over the country. One night, he received a call from the GM in Indianapolis telling him that ALL his calls from any of their other “airlines” were being forwarded to my son because the GM was on his way to the hospital to see the CEO who was there for some malady or another. Then and there, I promised myself I would never fly a regional commuter again.
I had a friend that at one point regularly flew commuter flights- she called them “Treetop Airlines” and said if you were lucky they cleared the treetops.