I don't think the regional's are going anywhere anytime soon. Yes they will contract and some regional's will close their doors as pressure on the pilot supply increases. If the legacies determine that the markets and services regional's provide are necessary they will make the improvement required to sustain them. What is percentage of domestic lift being provided to the legacies? Has that gone down or increased? Aren't some airlines like United looking for scope relief to add more regional lift? Republic just ordered ordered 100 more aircraft, and they are not replacements.

Let's face the fact, someone has always got to be on the bottom. Maybe it's done by regional's, or a "B" scale, or putting pilots on a seniority list with a lock for a certain number of years. But they will still be here in some form as long as there is a need.