I hate to say it, but I think wholly owned carriers may unfortunately become a new rung on the career ladder in the future. I only say that because I feel that non-wholly owned regional airlines will be the first to fail because without the support of the parent airline, its hard for them to compete for new hire pilots. Don't get me wrong, I think one way or the other they will all eventually fail, but wholly owneds may be the last to fail.

Of course non wholly owneds such as Republic or Skywest could turn in to competition or some form of aircraft leasing company. Someone on this forum proposed an interesting theory where mainline pilots could fly smaller aircraft owned by third parties.