Unfortunately it was only a matter of time. AA has historically only had one large regional - American Eagle. There were some very small operations like American Connection with TSA and RegionsAir. But for the most part, AA had not diversified its regional fleet. Every other legacy carrier had multiple regional airlines operating for them. When a flying contract was up, it was put out for the lowest bidder. The costs would be re-set every few years. AA was basically on the sidelines watching Northwest, Delta, United, and Continental operate with their multiple regional partners. One would think that common sense dictates that AA would soon follow suit. From a business perspective, it makes zero sense to put all the eggs in one basket for a regional operation. The Comair strike of '01 showed what one large regional operation could do to a legacy airline if there was ever a disruption. AA simply did to their regional operation what other legacy airlines had done long ago. Is it really surprising?