The regional airline industry, ever since the dawn of the RJ, has been a time-limited idea. These airlines do absolutely nothing on their own, they have no actual product that the provide to the end consumer. All they do is act as a means to reduce cost and responsibility for the mainline carrier. There is a point where it can be done cheaper at mainline than at a regional, and as their costs grows, these two come together. Once they do, the regionals are done. There is no "new business model" that is going to save them.

It is a crooked idea meant to screw labor and I'm glad its failing.