Originally Posted by
sailingfun
...you have to be able to do that flying at a competitive rate to the rest of the industry. If not you lose that flying and some of your mainline flying as feed dries up.
True, but costs to operate RJ's is going up one way or the other. Either the majors will pay more for the lift so that regional carriers can pay their pilots more, or majors will begin to operate such aircraft themselves at a higher cost. To the extent that this is the only way to continue to operate RJs long-term, each major carrier will face this dilemma and find its own way to realize the added costs or face a reduction or total loss of the ability to offer RJ service.