Originally Posted by VegasChris

My guess is it would go like this.

Horizon gets rid of Q400

​​​​​​Horizon sold to OO as part of the Alaska / WN merge, the leased a320s are gone
The new company will be a hybrid of hub and spoke vs the LCC model. It will require 175s to go to some small cities on the routes that cannot be filled with a max7. Inter-island as well with the 175. Skywest provides this under whatever name Alaska/southwest company wants.

New company now has a regional airline so southwest can get the flow it wants and skywest will need to continue recruiting
Open seating allows new company to upgrade and downgrade equipment based on load factor much quicker than competitors

EAS routes up that way and the small cities will be serviced by skywest charters in a crj200

Skywest only then has to fight envoy to keep it's monopoly on the entire western US regional market.

OO e175 sims should be operational in SEA soon. Just a guess as to what is coming

​​​​​​