The Pot of Gold story is indeed the issue that makes reaching a solution so difficult with these regional managements. I really do believe them when they claim there is no money (from the current revenue stream of mainline payments) to support any contract improvements. They (mainlines) are pushing the regional system to failure as a result. Right now they are sacrificing the most expendable/non-critical portions of that system, but the vital organs will be under stress soon. Performance failures in terms of increasing cancelled flights will be the only thing that may bring forth a recalculation of CPA payment levels, or simply an abandonment of the CPA system and bring the operations in house to a great degree. They used whipsawed CPA deals because they could. That is no longer an option going forward, unless some mainline dumps a huge portion of it's regional pilot supply and makes them available on the market.

So, what can they do? Cut schedules? Fool/scare us with Comairing in the morning while they refleet with large RJs in the afternoon? Pay to stabilize the regional system? Buy the operations back and admit the regional model is finished?