Keep in mind the industry is still changing rather quickly. Many of these regionals have merged. It would make sense for mainline to pick up their regionals to have better control over them (Look at what Delta made Pinnacle do with Colgan's UAX operation, and when RAH bought Frontier and Midwest, you know that got UAL's attention). I see regional sized aircraft getting a larger piece of the pie, one way or the other. And yes, scope will be lifted at mainline to protect those senior pensions.