B767 let me see if I can answer your questions:

First of a true Whipshaw is when a company use another company to get what they want. Example: Comair either lower your costs or we are going to give your planes to Go Jets. Or Frontier either come to the table with lower pay rates on the EMB - 190 or Republic will be flying them for you. And visa versa Republic either you fly the 190 for poverty wages or we are going to give them to Frontier and have to downgrade and furlough pilots. So SKW flying for US, UA, Alaska, and DL does not do anything to cause a whipshaw with in the Legacy airlines.

The Legacies contract out the regional flying becasue it is cheap. The money goes to keep the regional afloat not to the other legacy carriers. Skywest does not use DL money to fund UA flying. However, if DL wants new airplanes SKW can go out and use SKW money to buy the new planes. Not sure if all that makes sense.....

As for Republic. Yes we are a major but that is defined by the DOT on the amount of passengers you carry in a year. ExpressJet, Eagle, Skywest are also considered Majors. The Legacies are UA, DL, AA, US, HA, and probably SW by now. Republic was a Major before it bought F9. Even though Republic bought Frontier we still have contracts to fly for the Legacies, and can win more if we bid on the flying

Hope that helped