TAMPA, Fla. — University of Miami student Megan Salazar flies at least once a month between school and her home in Brandon, Fla. She sighs with relief when the plane is a small jet instead of a turboprop.

"I don't like the ones with the little propellers," she says, waiting at Tampa International Airport for an AirTran JetConnect flight to Miami. "They fly low over the Everglades. It's so bumpy and so loud, it feels like it's going to break down right there."

But the little jets annoy business travel writer Joe Brancatelli. He had to duck to keep from bumping his head as he squeezed into a tight seat for a 2 1/2-hour flight from New York to Jacksonville, Fla., recently on a Delta Connection jet.

"You have to bend down to walk through the aisle, it's cold, it's noisy compared to a regular-size jet," Brancatelli said. "And for that, they charge me top dollar."

Like them or not, travelers find themselves more and more likely to fly regional jets.

The jets, ranging in size from 37 to 90 seats, first appeared in the United States a decade ago and became the fastest-growing type of commercial aircraft.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, regional jets have been the only kind of planes airlines added to their fleets as they struggle to match the supply of seats with dwindling demand.

The economics are obvious in smaller cities, where airlines can't fill a regular-size plane. But the numbers work on busier routes, too.

If an airline can sell 30 tickets to high-paying business travelers, it makes more sense to fly a 50-seat jet that costs half as much to operate as a 119-seat Boeing 737, said Darryl Jenkins, head of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University in Washington.

Regional jets made up just one out of every 17 domestic flights in February 1999, according to airline consultants Global Aviation Associates in Washington. Three years later, the number was nearly one out of five.

Airline experts disagree over whether the small-jet boom will continue.

Raymond James & Associates analyst James Parker is bullish, in part because pilots at US Airways, United and American approved new contracts that relax restrictions on regional jets.

Affiliated airlines that pay lower salaries fly the smaller jets under names such as Delta Connection and Continental Express. Worried their jobs would be farmed out, most major-airline pilots have rules in their contracts, called "scope clauses," that limit the number of small jets or the size of the jets the affiliated carriers can fly.

But with the industry in its worst financial slump ever, big airlines are winning new contracts that allow more regional jet flying. US Airways, which emerged from bankruptcy court earlier this year, can add up to 465 regional jets, including some with as many as 76 seats.

Big cuts in wages and benefits will let major carriers reduce their costs as much as 30 percent, said JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker. That will narrow the affiliates' cost advantage, he said, and make it attractive for the majors to fly more of their own larger jets.

Is the rapid growth of regional jets good news for travelers? That depends on what kind of plane the small jet is replacing.

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Stacked up against a turboprop, the regional jet wins every time. Gone is the jarring roar of propellers beating the air, so passengers can talk in conversational tones. Regional jets have big-jet amenities, such as overhead bins, air conditioning on the ground and even drink minicarts.

But the most important feature for travelers like Salazar, the University of Miami student, is that the small jets seem more modern and safer, though turboprop operators say their planes' safety records are about the same as those for large jets.

For travelers accustomed to flying on a full-size jet, the smaller, all-coach regional jet isn't a good substitute. Frequent fliers miss upgrades into the wider seats, extra legroom and free drinks in first class. And for all their bells and whistles, the 50-seat regional jets are about the same size inside as turboprops. Because they're faster and fly up to 1,500 miles without refueling, travelers can find themselves in cramped quarters for longer flights.

Despite the occasional grumbling, regional jet fleets have grown steadily since Delta Connection carrier Comair started flying the first new jets in 1993.

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