At the NWA/DAL joint merger presentation, the NWA rep stated that they are looking for 100 seat jets that are fuel efficient to replace DC9s and MD80s, but that they are not available at a reasonable price at the moment. Until then, I think the RJs will be flying but it looks like 50 seat RJs will be phased out in numbers over the next few years. 76 seat RJs will continue on until they are replaced with 100 seat jets. The 100 seat jets will be flown by mainline pilots unless mainline pilots give up on the current scope clause. NWA alone has 8 regionals flying their routes and that's way too many. Looks like the new DAL will try to consolidate and narrow down regionals flying for them.