Originally Posted by
AxialFlow
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.
The pensions are gone. DAL/UAL's were terminated, CAL/NWA's were frozen, and AMR is going to do one or the other. So you obviously don't know what you are talking about. A lot of majors DID own their feed. Recently, they sold them off to go with the UAL model, which is have as many feeders as possible, and give the new contracts to the lowest bidder. What is happening at PNCL is the future of the regionals. Those Colgan Qs will be flying at UAL operated by brand xxx in no time. Piece of cake.
SLed