Long Long ago, in a Galaxy far far away....Well in Pittsburgh in 1967. The management at Allegheny airlines had an idea. "Hey we go to some small places that won't really even support Convair 580 services and we want to get to an all jet fleet." "How-about we contract out some service to another carrier to supply our feed to these small places." "I know a guy in Md, named Henson who has an FBO and will set this up for us."

HENRY’S CHARTER SERVICE: United States (1965-1968)

In August of the latter year, (1967) Henson enters into the first “Allegheny Commuter” associate agreement with Allegheny Airlines. The third-level carrier will now provide four per day scheduled flights from its western Maryland base to Washington, D. C. (actually, Baltimore’s Friendship Airport). For its part, the larger local service carrier agrees to help with reservations and ticketing, station handling, market planning, and accounting, and to offer a two-year financial guarantee against loss.

And.... https://airwaysmag.com/best-of-airwa...rlines-part-3/

ALLEGHENY COMMUTER

In an experiment designed to improve service at smaller stations while, at the same time, saving money and resources by diverting large aircraft to more heavily patronized routes, the airline’s management team introduced the first Allegheny Commuter operation in 1967.

With the CAB’s permission, the company subcontracted its service at Hagerstown, Maryland, to Henson Aviation, a scheduled air-taxi operator. Barnes and his team had conceived the idea of subcontracting services in 1965, but said that an appropriate aircraft type for such operations had yet to be developed. That all changed in 1966, when the 15-passenger, fully-instrumented, turbine-powered Beechcraft 99 made its maiden flight.

In Les Barnes’s opinion, the Locals were now morphing into regional airlines, which, in Allegheny’s leadership role as an innovator, meant that it was time to turn over the responsibility of operating in some small stations—the reason for the Locals’ existence in the first place—to yet a ‘third level’ of air carrier. This was the beginning of the practice of ‘code share’ between a large carrier and a commuter, using the larger airline’s name, which is common today.

The Allegheny Commuter concept required that Allegheny select ‘competent operators’ to perform the service and that all flights would benefit from the full spectrum of Allegheny’s standard operations. Two pilots were required on all Commuter flights, and aircraft had to be equipped with “all modern avionics equipment, including automatic pilot, radar transponders and weather radar.” Insurance coverage for passengers was identical to Allegheny’s, and reservations, baggage transfers, and all other aspects of travel were handled by Allegheny personnel just as mainline flights were.

In general, more frequent and conveniently timed schedules were offered to the customers in the smaller cities, and flights were timed to connect with Allegheny’s mainline schedules at hub airports. In the case of Hagerstown, passengers were transported to Baltimore’s Friendship Airport (now BWI), and, later, to Washington National (DCA).

The Hagerstown experiment was the first of the company’s Allegheny Commuter operations, and it quickly showed positive results. In short order, Allegheny began to petition the CAB for permission to extend the concept to other small stations. The CAB’s incentive for approving the transfers was the possibility of reducing or eliminating subsidies as traffic increased with improved service.

The important thing to understand is that a regional airline, who wears the colors of a larger partner, is a legal entity, a sub-contractor. Yes, with the growth of regional airlines into all jet fleets they look essentially like a major airline and may have revenues that put them in the major airline category, but they do not market their own product. They act in a manner designated by their major partner and have contracts with that major partner. They do not market themselves independently.

There is no evil empire for the "force" to strike back at. It's just the way it is, a business relationship, that has existed since before many on this board were born. I have flown with a few old crusty "rust-head" East guys who remember the first little airplane with Allegheny written on the side and the junior ALPA F/O's were against it. And this is in the regulated era of 1967.