I'd call it "blind optimism". If the Eagle TA goes through, they very well WILL get 100-seaters and be flying them for 50-seat rates that get adjusted yearly to ensure they remain the Ralph Kramden's of the industry.

The irony will be in 5-7 years when most of them come to the horrifying realization they wont be going to any majors due to the new proliferation of the new "RJ" and that tradional domestic mainline flying has that much more eroded from its existance and thus shrinks at the rate of retirements (or thereabouts) offering very few slots for this new breed of "regional pilots" to leave for.

I see basically history repeating itself on steroids wherby the former "regional pilots", become the future "small-jet pilots. "RJ's" will morph into "SJ's" and the new career for the majority (at least 75%) will be a lower-middle class income that approximates that of a typical Home Improvement Store manager.........well, at least captains.

Those who spend extnded time as F/O's in that environment spanning many years..............well, do we really need to go there ?

The career major airline pilot profession is in the mid-late stages of death and this next batch will finish it off. Right now, there is too much blindness from shiny metal, so most won't see this coming until well after it's over, just like 20 years ago when that first innocent little Comair CRJ-200 showed up and no one thought it would amount to much. That little plane is already HALF the domestic schedule overall and if mainline scope is lost, so will 2/3 of the remaining half, sentancing the majority of the future airline pilots of the U.S. to crap.