For the life of me, I cannot understand the willingness of any company to cede control of their brand image and product. Management has clearly demonstrated that they are not trustworthy with RJs and scope. All of this RJ flying was and should be mainline flying... there should not be any distinction between mainline and regional or feeder, etc. It is ALL MAINLINE flying. Let's just make the contract reflect what was and should be reality.
If they can continue to outsource the smaller aircraft flying, they will next turn their focus to the mid and wide body flying. Time to stop the erosion.
I totally agree. With regard to ceding control of its trademarked brand or image, I recall a Continental DC-10 many years ago that flew on an interchange agreement with Garuda Indonesia. CAL pilots would fly it to Guam, and Garuda pilots would take it on to Bali.
One half of the airplane had Continental paint, the other Garuda colors. The Wall Street Journal commented that traditional airline management would abhor such a paint scheme, but to Lorenzo and his boys, selling airline tickets was "like selling shoes."