I think we'll see a shift in the hiring statistics going forward. The last decade really slowed the upward advancement of folks at the regional level. Sure, some made it on at SWA, JetBlue, Delta and Continental. However, a lot got stuck in the left seat of the RJ or had a ridiculously long upgrade to captain. A lot of these guys have 5-8 years invested in a regional, how have kids, mortgages, a nice schedule and earn 100k (ish) a year. Life isn't bad. Why mess up a good thing?

I think going forward we'll see a few of those guys jump ship at the front end of the wave as they are the most qualified. Then we'll be seeing 2-5 year regional pilots, many with zero TPIC be moving up. I think (just a guess) we'll see the TPIC requirement die in a few years and the 2-4 year RJ FO or captain moving forward while the current 5-8 year regional captains will be staying put at SkyWest, Republic, ExpressJet, etc, because of their current situation above.

YMMV. I could be totally wrong. We'll see.