Indianapolis-based Republic Airways plans to consolidate its Chautauqua Airlines operation into its Shuttle America subsidiary in an effort to cut costs through a reduction of its air operator certificates to two from three. Company CEO Bryan Bedford sent a letter to employees in late July announcing the company’s intention to migrate Chautauqua’s 41 fifty-seat Embraer ERJ-145s to Shuttle America by year-end. While plans call for the group to retire 27 ERJs from its operation this year, Republic’s code-share arrangement with American has seen it take delivery of 32 of 47 new E175s from Embraer. It expects to take the remaining 15 of the 76-seat jets over the next eight months.