IF A MAJOR WANTED E2s they could simply buy or lease them, just as some are currently buying/leasing A220s. But with a declining number of pilots in the pipeline, the tendency will be to grow by capacity with A321NEOs and 737MAXs, not opt for smaller aircraft, although their are niches where the smaller aircraft would be helpful for long thin trips. But as of yet, there is no reason to think anybody will ever be buying a regional for its pilots. The regional doesn’t OWN its pilots… it’s a 13th amendment thing.

Not only that, there will be some pilots in the regional pilot group that the major simply doesn’t want. Too many conspicuous piercings or tattoos, too many DUIs, too many training failures, too little education, too sketchy a criminal record or social network postings. They wouldn’t buy the whole group even if they could if it required them to add these people to their seniority lists. Worse yet, these are often the same people they have already rejected multiple times and an SLI would put them in higher positions due to their regional seniority.

No, anyone not hustling, getting hours, getting college completed, getting apps out - you know, the sorts of things that always got you noticed at the next level - and hoping instead that your regional just somehow gets bought up by a major are going to be left behind by the ones who hustle, because it isn’t ever going to happen.