my guess was for the continental flying expressjet is supposed to be losing (if things fell through) and, if expressjet didn't sell to skywest, continental still plans to pull the airplanes from them, which they could then lease to skywest who would need authorization to fly them. The only reason i could imagine them not going with CRJ's would have something to do with a deal struck between continental/skywest which is financially better than them attempting to find and purchase more canadairs from the desert.