I have been preaching the 70 seat max at the regionals forever.
I have mixed feelings about these -900's at Skywest.
First, they only seat 70 people (and that should be a regional max). If they actually sat 90 people, this would be a major problem. At 70 seats, it seems like it would not take away from jobs at majors anymore than a -700 would.
Second, obviously a -900 is a larger aircraft than a -700.
It is mainline size, at regional seating capacity!
Personally, I am happy with ALL regionals at 70 seats and under. But should future scope contracts include a max gross weight clause? Take the max gross weight on a CRJ-700 and EMB-170, and require the mainline to have all flying over that max gross weight.
Hopefully US Air pilots can get a 70 seat scope clause. Tell Mesa to take those -900's and stick them up their @$$ (no disrespect to Mesa pilots).