Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Majors don't care. They'll drop service to Podunk Falls (since 100 seats is about the minimum size they'll consider at mainline), and put narrowbodies (fewer of them) on fatter routes.
Congress might care, so those 50-seaters might end up doing subsidized EAS under "Brand X" instead of "mainline express".
When the regionals fall apart, mainlines will still have to fly the small jets if they want to keep their market share, and anti-trust immunity. Unless they can get the government to change small jet policy, but in 30+ years, they haven't made progress.