With Airbus taking over Bombardier and Boeing about to buy 80% of Embraer, it's obvious the heavy jet manufacturers believe that there is a niche these medium range 80-130 pax oversize regionals are able to fill better than Airbus and Boeings current offerings can, and it is quicker and/or cheaper to join them than to build planes that can compete in that niche.

So yeah, I can see SOMEBODY putting these on as the low end equipment at a major. The whole Embraer E-2 series is designed to be flown with only a very minimum transition training for anyone currently rated for the E-170/190 series of aircraft and I imagine the CRJ "jumbo regionals" training requirements would be very similar for the legions of regional pilots already flying CRJs.

While regional pay certainly isn't approaching mainline pay the pilot salary cost per passenger seat mile for someone flying a 50 seat CRJ 200 (Think Air Wisconsin) is certainly climbing with even just first year FOs getting a $57,000 bonus just to sign on. That's four times the pay regionals were offering four years ago. At that rate it won't be long before it'll be more cost effective to bring this flying back in house in a larger but more efficient aircraft.