Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Yes.
WO's serve as "capacity accumulators"... majors can use them to quickly downsize (or possibly increase) regional flying as and if needed. The downside/risk of a WO is that the camel gets it's nose under the tent and starts thinking it's part of the family and deserves mainline compensation... that is mitigated with maintaining outside, competitive, sources of regional flying, and if necessary liquidation ala comair.
The same 'family' bought a regional out of bankruptcy and gave them the highest rj pay rates in history.
The entire regional industry is being squeezed by high labor rates, bad PR, expensive oil, slot constrained airports and aging airplanes.