Originally Posted by
Wingtips
I think over the next 5 years, the regionals will either become wholey owned or tied tightly to a major, with flow up agreements. Its the only way they can maintain the status quo of the current system and prevent the entire card stack from falling.
PNCL is the first step, I could see Republic spinning off CHQ and UAL bailing them out of CH11. AWAC is already tied to USAIR. Skywest might be the only big one left that is independent and that is IF they can stop the bleeding. TSH is the only one I dont have enough info on, but it seems DAL and UAL like their Gojetz product, at least UAL.
I think you might be off on your idea of more regionals becoming wholly owned. How is a regional that only operates for one carrier closer to a contracting partner than a regional that operates for multiple carriers? Sure, DAL might have more leverage over PNCL, if PNCL only does business with DAL, but other than that I don't see any difference.