Originally Posted by
Flyhayes
When flying at the regional level, you are merely a sub contractor. The mainline partner can yank "your" flying at anytime and leave you on the street holding your hat.
Not likely to happen to any of the larger players in the near/mid-term.
Business is booming, and there's a pilot shortage at the bottom end. If any major kissed off one of their large regional partners, that partner would probably just turn around and fly for a competitor.
The more likely doomsday scenario would be pilot shortage at mainline such that they systematically drew down their regionals with some kind of flow to get the pilots over to mainline. But that's a ways off if ever.