Before deregulation, you paid a significant amount for an airline ticket, or you took the bus. Watch those old movies from the 70's. You see families, businessmen, and soldiers riding the bus. The RJ became the bus. If the "shortage" of qualified pilots happens, more people will have to ride the bus. Some of these routes are ridiculous anyways. DEN-COS in an RJ, really? You can drive that in an hour and a half. SFO-SAC, 1.5 hours too. There's a lot of room to cut flights.